Fran Meehan and Catherine Walsh put manners on the Germans in the sprint race for bronze
The Irish team has rounded off its successful trip to the UCI Paracycling World Track Championships in Los Angeles by taking a surprise bronze medal in the female tandem sprint.
The Irish pair of Catherine Walsh and Fran Meehan added that medal to the world pursuit title they had already picked up on the opening day of the championships last Thursday.
Walsh and Meehan were fourth fastest in yesterday morning’s sprint qualification in a new Irish record time of 12.259. That was enough to get them into the semi final where they were beaten by Great Britain in two straight sprints.
In the other semi final Australia beat Germany meaning Walsh and Meehan would be meeting Germany in the sprint off for the bronze medal.
Advertisement
The Irish decided to lead out the sprints and in the first round beat the Germans to the line. In the second sprint, the Irish pair again went early and this time pulled away from their opponents to effectively have them well beaten by the finish and have the bronze in the bag with plenty of time to celebrate.
Walsh’s and Meehan’s taking of the medal was made all the sweeter by the fact the sprints event was not a race they had targeted.
Also in the sprint events yesterday, the male tandem pairing of Andrew Fitzgerald and Con Collis put in a good performance to record a time of 11.631 which left them in 17th place.
The Irish team sprint squad of Colin Lynch, Enda Smyth and Cathal Miller finished just outside the top 10, taking 11th place in a new Irish record time of 56.840.
Related News
In other events on the LA track on Saturday, newly crowned 3km pursuit world champion Colin Lynch was first off in the C2 1km TT where in spite of putting in two big efforts the previous day he still managed to set a new Irish record of 1:19.245 which was good enough to give him 4th place overall.
In the afternoon session Enda Smyth was up first in the C3 category and finished in 7th place just outside his Irish record in a time of 1:15.593. This was despite a training fall earlier in the week leaving him with a heavily strapped wrist.
Cathal Miller was next up on Saturday in the C5 category, where he was sitting in 2nd place for most of the event after clocking 1:10.670. However the last four three riders just upped the pace and ended in a new world record set by Jon-Allan Butterworth of GB in a time of 1:07.212 to take the gold. China took the silver and Spain the Bronze. Miller’s time left him in 6th place overall.
Ireland manager Denis Toomey said Ireland’s haul of two golds, one silver one bronze medal augers well for the Paralympics in London.
“We will know in about two weeks what our final country ranking points total accumulation for the London Paralympics will be, but the tremendous performances by all the squad will surely mean that we will surpass our target and secure four male slots and two female slots.”
“We can certainly be confident of bringing home Ireland’s first ever cycling medals from the Paralympic Games when you take into consideration that we now five current world championship titles and one silver and two bronze world championship finishers. I think any sport in Ireland will be hard pushed to match that.”
Ireland’s men broke the national record in the team sprint
Topics
