Colin Lynch gets his effort underway in the sunshine in Rio; a testing ride that would bring him a silver medal. It was Ireland’s fourth medal at these Paralympics and the second by a cyclist (Photo: Sportsfile – Paralympics Ireland)
Having seen Eoghan Clifford take a bronze medal on the track in his pursuit contest last week, Colin Lynch has double Irish cycling’s medal tally at the Rio Paralympics.
The man with World Championship gold and rainbow bands in his palmares has taken a brilliant silver in the C2 men’s road TT in Pontal this morning.
It means cyclists have now won half of Ireland’s four medals so far at these Games, with athletics stars Jason Smyth and Michael McKillop having already taken golds on the running track.
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Lynch, a 45-year-old who was born in Canada but has been competing for Ireland for many years, took silver today behind Canadian rider Tristen Chernove.
The Irish rider clocked a time of 28.02 in the 20km test.
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He was 19 seconds behind the winner and new Paralympic champion and was 15 seconds clear of the bronze medal winner, Guihua Liang from China.
Lynch’s left leg was amputated below the knee aged 21-years after complications following a broken foot six years earlier and a tumour being discovered on his spinal cord.
He won the Paracycling World Championship road time trial title in 2011 and the Paracycling individual pursuit track title in 2012.
Silver in Rio is a terrific result for Lynch as he went into the London Paralympics as World Champion but missed out on a track medal by one tenth of a second and was also 5th in both the road race and road TT.
Since then he has regrouped and also launched a crowd funding campaign that paid for a new carbon fibre lower leg.
More to follow.
Irish in action today, Wednesday
- 12.09 COLIN LYNCH in Men's C2 20km Time Trial
- 13.49 DECLAN SLEVIN in Men's H3 20km Time Trial
- 14.30 CIARA STAUNTON in Women's H1-3 20km Time Trial
- 17.35 DAMIEN VEREKER and SEAN HAHESSY in Men's B Tandem 30km Time Trial
- 17.44 PETER RYAN and MARCIN MIZGAJSKI in Men's B Tandem 30km Time Trial
- 18.40 EOGHAN CLIFFORD in Men's C3 30km Time Trial
- 18.56 KATIE-GEORGE DUNLEVY and EVE McCRYSTAL in Women's B Tandem 30km Time Trial
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