Clifford bags brilliant Worlds bronze for Ireland; Lynch just misses out

Rocket Man: Eoghan Clifford on his way to adding a track bronze medal to the two gold medals he won at the UCI World Road Paracycling Championships in the US last year. The Galway man is a total newcomer to the track, having only started this year.

By Brian Canty

Eoghan Clifford secured Ireland’s first medal at this year’s UCI Paracycling Track World Championships in the Netherlands.

The Galway man took bronze in the men’s C3 3km individual pursuit just six weeks after making his track cycling debut.

He beat Russia’s Sergey Ustinov by almost two seconds in what was a phenomenal performance, having qualified for the ride-off courtesy of a brilliant qualifying outing earlier in the day where he lapped his opponent twice.

In fact, so quick was Clifford’s time of 3.39.945 that he missed out on the gold medal ride-off by less than half a second.

“I was first on the track in January, and had my first race in Newport in February, so it’s been a big learning curve, learning how the track works,” said an elated Clifford afterwards.

“The Russian rider pushed me very hard in the final, and I only got ahead in the last kilometre.

All coach Neil Delahaye was short of doing was getting onto the bikes for the riders; great to see the Irish passion in full flow.

“I tend to start slowly and am lucky that I recover well between efforts.

“In Newport I went faster in the final than in the qualifying round, so it was very positive knowing that I can do two similar times, or a better time, so close together.

“We were hoping for better times, but compared to Newport the times are slower.

"But probably at the time we underestimated the track, it wasn’t as fast as people thought, as only two went faster than me.

“The support team here has been great, so professional.

“I was disappointed this morning and they really picked me up so I was in great form for the final.”

Colin Lynch qualified for the bronze medal ride-off today but had to settle for fourth in an ultra-competitive race.

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Elsewhere today, Colin Lynch also qualified for the bronze medal ride-off in the men’s C2 3km individual pursuit but had to be content with fourth place in the decider.

The bronze medal went to Arslan Gilmutdinov of Russia.

Lynch said: “This morning I had a good ride, and then in the final I did everything to plan.

“I rode as well as could be expected but the only thing is with the really short turnaround time it didn’t give me enough time to recover.

“I’m disappointed I couldn’t give the performance I’m usually capable of in the final.

“Fourth is still fourth in the world, it’s just when your sight is on the podium, it’s that bit more disappointing.”

Lynch and Clifford will compete again on Sunday in the scratch race but before that both the women’s and men’s tandem bikes will be competing in the individual pursuit events.

Ireland's Clifford on the podium; he now has three Worlds medals, an amazing haul for a man so new to international competition.

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