PARALYMPICS Walsh secures Ireland's first ever medal at the World Para Track Cycling Championships in Manchester

Walsh, along with her pilot rider, Caroline Ryan, finished in second position with a time of 3.38.756 behind the American pair of Karissa Whitsell and Mackenzie Woodring, who took gold in a new World Record Time of 3.36.362. Walsh, a mother of two from Co. Louth and a previous Medallist from the Sydney Paralympic Games, transferred her talents to Cycling after retirement from Athletics.


Speaking after the event, vision impaired athlete Walsh with her pilot rider Ryan said, "We are thrilled to get the silver medal here tonight. It took a World Record from the Americans to beat us!! For this to be Ireland's first World Championship medal is a tremendous honour, we'll be smiling about this for a long time."


Team Manager, Denis Toomey, delighted with the performance stated "We are delighted with tonight's performance. The whole squad are in good shape and have performed well. Having come so close to securing medals for Ireland at the Road World Championships in Italy recently, we were quietly optimistic that we could go one step further and produce the goods here in Manchester. "


The Female Tandem pairing also set a New Irish Record of 1:14.664 in the 1km Time trial yesterday to secure a great 5th place finish for Ireland.


Earlier in the today's competition, Ireland's tandem pair of Michael Delaney and Con Collis, qualified 3rd fastest in the 200m Sprint competition in a new Irish Record Time of 10:857 just 0.4 of a second off the world record time. Unfortunately the pair crashed during the quarterfinals against Canada and whilst there appeared to be no serious injuries, the riders were taken to hospital as a precautionary measure.


The Irish Male tandem in the B&VI 4km Pursuit, Andrew Fitzgerald and pilot Paul Giblin recorded a PB time of 4:43.437 good enough to give them 9th place overall.


Dublin man Cathal Miller set a New Irish Record on his way to qualify for a Bronze Medal ride off in the 4km Individual Pursuit competition at the Manchester Velodrome earlier in the competition. Drawn against the Austrian rider in Heat 6, Miller rode a perfectly paced pursuit to register a time of 4:52.733, almost a full second off his old Irish Record. This was good enough to give him 4th place overall and set him up for a Bronze Medal ride off against another Austrian rider Wolfgand Eibeck. Miller was unsuccessful in the ride off, finishing with a tremendous result of 4th position.


Enda Smyth, also from Dublin, set an Irish Record in the CP4 4km Individual Pursuit competition recording a time 5:18.048. Smyth coped well with the longer distance introduced this year for the CP4 riders up from the previous 3km distance.

The team travels home to Ireland this evening after producing Ireland's most successful World Championship performance yet.