In a busy sporting summer, it is possible at times to miss some of the most impressive performances. It is worth highlighting then the stunning success of the Para-Cycling team at the World Championships taking place last weekend in Canada.
In total Team Ireland secured two gold medals and a bronze in the road races, adding to the silver and bronze that they won in the time trial earlier in the competition.
In the women’s tandem road race, Ireland claimed a perhaps unprecedented two spots on the podium with Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal winning gold and Josephine Healion and Linda Kelly claiming bronze.
This was a remarkable sixth World Championship Title for Dunlevy and McCrystal. The double Paralympic gold medallists launched an attack on the climb, with one and a half laps to go, and were strong enough to hold their lead to the line.
The pair come away from a successful championship campaign with a silver in the time trial and gold in the road race.
“It was a nice course,” said McCrystal after the race. “It was the same as the time trial with just an extra hill in it. It was a challenging enough course, but it was nice and flowy.”
“We got away mid-race with the British team; we’ve been beaten before in a sprint with them so we just couldn’t take them to the line. We discussed tactics and we went on the climb of the second last lap, and we rode to the rainbow jersey which was great.”
“I’m absolutely over the moon. It’s our sixth World Championship medal and it’s as special as the first and you know we lost the titles last year so it’s great to that back to bring to Ireland,” added Dunlevy.
Competing for the first time internationally at the World Cup last weekend, Healion and Kelly have more than proved themselves as worthy contenders at this level.
After the disappointment of suffering a major mechanical fault in the time trial on Friday which delayed them by close to 10 minutes, the pair made amends on Sunday and secured a well-deserved bronze medal.
In the end, it came down to a sprint between Ireland and Poland for the bronze medal. Just 15 metres from the finish line the timing chain came off on the Irish bike, but Healion and Kelly had done enough to see them cross the finish line just ahead.
Ronan Grimes took a superb gold medal in the men’s C4 road race. Fresh from winning bronze in the time trial on Friday, Grimes proved strongest in the 5-rider sprint for the finish adding another title to his list of achievements this year.
“Every year I’ve been getting a tiny bit closer, but I never knew I would actually make that top step in a road race and thinking how that would actually happen,” said Grimes.
“Today everything seemed to go right. It was a hard race and a long sprint to the line which you know played into my hands perfectly today. If things had been a bit more cagey today I mightn’t have had that kick, but I think when it’s a hard, honest race, it played to my strengths.”
