Colin Lynch gives it full gas on the boards at the London Velodrome, but came up short
The calibre of the field on the London Velodrome at the Paralympic Games was clear for all to see today when Ireland’s double world champion Colin Lynch came away from the C2 individual pursuit event without a medal.
Having expressed his disappointment early in the day not to make the gold medal ride off after the pursuit qualifying round, there was to be further disappointment in the afternoon when he was beaten by just twelve hundredths of a second for the bronze.
The reigning World Road TT Champion and World C2 Individual Pursuit Champion was one of Team Ireland’s great hopes for a medal, possibly gold.
This morning he qualified for the bronze medal ride-off in his speciality pursuit event in a time of 3:54.946, which was fourth fastest.
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That left him facing Laurent Thirionet of France in the afternoon battle for the bronze. China’s Guihua Liang set a new world record of 3:45.828 in qualifying.
Unfortunately for Lynch and Ireland there was to be no consolation bronze in the afternoon when he met the Frenchman in that bronze medal decider. To his immense credit, Lynch dug very deep and went considerably faster than in the qualifiers, clocking 3:53.667. However, Thirionet was just that bit faster and went home with the medal.
The disappointment was compounded by the fact that Lynch had led all the way until the last stages and that it would have been Team Ireland’s first medal at these Games.
Lynch sounded understandably shattered after the race but said he would not switch his attention to tasks ahead.
“I hadn’t met Thirionet on the track before, but I knew I had the measure of him on the road. I am very disappointed with the result, I tried a strategy and it didn’t work. Next up is the team sprint, and after that I will switch my focus to the road.”
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