Fifth for Clifford in Scratch Race at the Para-cycling Track World Championships
Ireland’s Eoghan Clifford finished fifth in the MC1-2-3 Scratch Race at the UCI 2016 Para-cycling Track World Championships in Montichiari, Italy today. The defending World Champion was racing in the final of the event alongside teammate Colin Lynch, who finished 13th, having both qualified last Friday. After a race in which he was heavily marked, it was disappointment for Clifford, at the end of a championship which saw him win bronze in the MC3 3km Pursuit. The event was won by Aleksey Obydennov (RUS), with Fabio Anobile (ITA) and Esneider Munoz Marin (COL) taking silver and bronze. Also in action today were the male tandem pairing of Peter Ryan and Sean Hahessy and the female tandem of Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal, the latter breaking the national record in the qualifying 200m with a time of 12.259. This netted a 6th place finish for the women, with Ryan and Hahessy finishing in 17th overall. This was the final day of racing in the championships which took place in the Montichiari Velodrome in Brescia, Northern Italy.
Speaking from the velodrome Eoghan Clifford was disappointed with the result, as he had ridden an aggressive race; “It was tough; I tried to make it tough, so I’m disappointed, fifth was not what I came here for. I wanted the gold medal, and at least a medal. I may not have had my best legs, but I had the legs to win it. I had a few attacks off the front of the race, and when the Aussie guy (David Nicholas) went for a lap. I did a good bit of work to chase it down, stringing out the bunch behind me. The guys said that I was pretty heavily marked though too.”
Clifford is looking forward to a recovery week following the particularly testing block of training in this early part of the year saying “I’m going back to Galway; mentally I need a break now to take stock of the past few months. I’ll take a few days off the bike before getting back up and running. It will be good to draw a line under the early part of the season.” This echoes tandem stoker Peter Ryan who said “Next week is an unload week, as much for the head as the body. Since January we have been looking forward to and preparing for this weekend, so there’s now a bit of mental fatigue, so it will be good to recalibrate and refocus.”
National Performance Coach Neill Delahaye was happy with the performance of the team over the championships and is motivated for the next part of the year and the preparation for the Paralympic Games in Rio, saying “We are happy with our performances, particularly in the targeted events, so we are confident that we are making progress, but there is still work to do before Rio, fine tuning to be done. The trajectory of improvement our bikes have made in time gains in our PBs is in excess of our competitors. Our improvement is greater, but we still have a gap to bridge. While we went better than ever; we need to go better again for the Games.”
Two medals and seven top ten results rounds off a successful world championship campaign for the Irish team, with the next track competition for the paracyclists being the Paralympic Games in September. The UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships took place from the 17-20 March in Montichiari, Italy.