The Minster for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross, TD, and the Minister with responsibility for Sport, Brendan Griffin, TD, today sent their congratulations to Ireland’s successful team at the UCI 2018 Para-cycling Track World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this weekend.
The Irish cycling community was delighted with the success of Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal in winning a bronze medal in the Women’s B Tandem 3km Individual Pursuit on Friday.
The Irish partnership beat New Zealand in the medal ride off with gold going to Great Britain and Belgium securing silver.
Dunlevy and McCrystal also excelled in the Women’s B Tandem Sprint, which is a 1km Time Trial, and were extremely unlucky not to medal in that discipline as they finished fourth. Their qualifying time of 11.892 seconds broke the previous national record by a significant margin of 3.5 seconds.
Ireland’s men’s tandem pair Martin Gordon and Eamonn Byrne also set a new national record as they eventually finished sixth and showed that they can compete with the top teams in the world in a discipline which features in the Paralympic Games.
Another Irish success story was Ronan Grimes, who had an excellent debut at a major championship with three impressive top ten finishes, and is definitely a rider of great potential. Minister Ross said: “I send my congratulations to all of our competitors at the UCI 2018 Para-cycling Track World Championships in Brazil this week and to Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal in particular on their medal success. Ireland has tremendous history of cycling and it is fantastic to see our leading Para-cycling riders competing so well with the best in the world. I wish them continued success in the coming years and they should be rightly proud of the progress they’ve made.”
Minister Griffin added his congratulations to Dunlevy and McCrystal and their Irish team-mates: “Well done to all of our competitors at the UCI 2018 Para-cycling Track World Championships. It is always pleasing to see Irish sports people compete so strongly amongst the best in the world. Katie-George and Eve proved with their gold and silver medal success at the Paralympics in 2016 that they are right up there with the best pairs in the world so their performances this weekend are proof once again of their outstanding commitment to their sport.”