Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal resplendent in the iconic world champion rainbow bands. They shot to the world title today at the World Championships in South Africa.
Katie George Dunlevy, Eve McCrystal world champions
Already Paralympic champions, Katie George Dunlevy and her sighted pilot Eve McCrystal are now also world champions.
The prolific duo took their first World Championships gold medal in the WB tandem TT in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, earlier today.
They took the title by six seconds from the Team GB duo of Lora Fachie and Corrie Hall. And Iwona Podkoscielna and Aleksandra Teclaw took bronze; 1:22 down after the 31km test.
“It was really, really tight; a fight to the line,” said a delighted Dunlevy. “The course was quite up and down, so it wasn’t one that really suited us.
“But in that fourth lap our strength and endurance really paid off. It was our endurance that brought us to the line.”
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She added it was extra special to win her first world title having taken TT gold and road race silver in Rio.
“It feels amazing. We really wanted this title,” Dunlevy said after their golden ride.
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“Our aim was to get those world stripes, we decided that straight after winning in Rio last year.
“We worked so, so hard for this. I’m going to enjoy this moment forever.
“After winning in Rio it was a hard feat to come out this year and win again, but we are both just over the moon.”
Eve McCrystal said she knew it was “so important” for partner Dunlevy to win Worlds gold. And she revealed she thought they’d been beaten and finished 2nd only to realise just after crossing the line they had won.
“After the first lap, we were ten seconds down, and going into the last lap we were five seconds up,” McCrystal said.
“But at the turn around point, with 3.5km to go, we were three seconds down again.
“We are long enough together on the bike to know not to panic, so we held our heads.
“That was a really hard course. It was up and down, quite steep in sections too, with the cross wind playing a factor.
“It made it difficult to control the bike but we handled it well.”
Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal now for road race
The Irish women now turn their attention to their road race on Sunday. And they will once again target gold.
Also competing today in the TTs were the two male tandems of Peter Ryan and Sean Hahessy and Damien Vereker piloted by Dermot Radford.
Both tandems raced well over the 31km course, finishing 9th and 11th respectively.
In the men’s MC4 TT both Andrew Nicholson and Ronan Grimes made their World Championship debut, finishing 12th and 13th. Colin Lynch finished 5th in the MC2 TT.
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