Dunlevy and McCrystal Finish Fifth in Pursuit in Rio

The women’s tandem of Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal have finished 5th in the Women’s B Tandem Individual Pursuit at the Paralympic Games with a personal best time at sea level of 3.33.471. With only four bikes progressing to the medal ride-offs it was disappointment for the Irish duo who were sitting in fourth qualifying position with one lap to go. GB’s Lora Turnham and Corrine Hall were the fastest finishers with a Paralympic Record of 3.27.460; in the gold medal final they became the Paralympic Champions ahead of Emma Foy and Laura Thompson of New Zealand. The second Great Britain pairing of Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott won the bronze medal ahead of New Zealand. In the Men’s B Tandem Kilo Damien Vereker and Séan Hahessy finished in 8th place with a personal best of 1.06.370, gold went to the Netherlands with Great Britain and German taking silver and bronze.

The women’s tandem had a steady start sitting in 7th spot at the 1km mark, before gradually moving up the rankings. In the last 500m they dipped into 4th place, a position that would have qualified them for the bronze medal ride off, however, unfortunately in the closing lap they trailed the New Zealand bike, finishing an agonising 0.173 seconds outside the fourth and final qualifying spot.

Speaking after the race Dunlevy and McCrystal were disappointed with their finishing position; “We’re disappointed. We’re here to get in the medal ride-off, for gold and silver; we believed we could do it. We were aiming to get a personal best today, but it wasn’t good enough on the day. We train on the track when we can, and go to camps in Majorca, but it does go back to not having that velodrome at home. It would make such a difference if we had one, there’s only so much you can do with limited time. We were up against two nations who train full time in the velodrome, hopefully our advantage will be the time trial [on the road]; it doesn’t cost to train on an open road. Believe me Neill [Delahaye – coach] gives us a programme to get us here race fit and ready, and we got a two and a half second PB which is amazing for us, but it’s just that the top four are fulltime training on a velodrome.”

The Men’s Kilo event is an intense effort that favours a sprint rider, and Vereker was pleased with their performance; “We got out of the gate cleanly and kept on the power on, in the kilo you are keeping on as much power as you can going around.” Tandem pilot Hahessy added “A minute and six seconds to do 1km; I went to school one kilometre from my house and never got there that quick! We’re pretty happy.”

On Wednesday the relatively new pairing will compete on the road in the Time Trial; Vereker is looking forward to the event; “The Time Trial is a big focus, we put a lot of work into the TT, the course suits the two of us, it’s straight out and back. We are a new pair but we are on the bike every day for four and five hours; we are improving the whole time and we know each other pretty well now, so I don’t think it will make a difference that we are only new.”

Monday and Tuesday sees a break in the cycling schedule before all seven Irish bikes are in action next Wednesday in the Time Trial.