Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal finished seventh in the Women’s B Tandem 1km Time Trial at the UCI 2018 Para-cycling Track World Championships tonight, with a time of 1.12.509. The Great Britain bike of Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott won in a phenomenal time of 1.05.079 – almost a second faster than the world record.


Earlier today Ronan Grimes was eighth in the Men’s C4 4km Individual Pursuit with 4.55.538. The Galway born rider has made a solid mark for himself in his world championship debut this week. The Individual Pursuit was won by Jozef Metelka from Slovakia; Kyle Bridgwood (Australia) won silver and Jaco Van Gass (GB) took bronze.


In the Men’s B Tandem 1km Time Trial sprint specialists Martin Gordon and Eamonn Byrne kicked off their own worlds campaign, finishing 14th with a time of 1.05.507, just ahead of Peter Ryan and Sean Hahessy who were 16th with 1.06.426. Great Britain were dominant again, with the gold medal going to Neil Fachie and Matthew Rotherham in a time of 59.686.


Dunlevy and McCrystal won a bronze medal yesterday in the Women’s B Tandem 3km Individual Pursuit, and today they switched focus to the more sprint focused 1km Time Trial, or Kilo. Their time was just 0.2 seconds off their pb, which they set at the Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016.


Speaking after the event McCrystal said “We have to be happy with that! It’s not our favoured event, so to come away with that time is a good ride for us. We are in a good place for the season ahead.”


After the MC4 Pursuit, Grimes was happy with his result, describing a high standard race – “The standard of riders in the top ten today was very high, with most having medalled at world championships before. Going into it I thought I might have gone a couple of seconds faster, but perhaps got my pacing slightly off.


“Still, the results from today’s pursuit and Thursday’s kilo have left me with some good benchmarks to work on and improve on over the next season.”


In the Men’s B Tandem 1km Time Trials Ryan and Hahessy were one of the early starters but were forced to restart later after a mishap off the start. The pairing of Gordon and Byrne raced well to finish 14th. This is their second year competing at the Track World Championships, and they knocked a whopping 2.5 seconds off their 2017 time.


Tomorrow all tandems will be in action throughout the day, competing in the sprint events.


The UCI 2018 Para-cycling Track World Championships take place in the Velódromo do Rio, Brazil from the 22nd – 25th March.


RESULTS


W B 1km Time Trial

Gold Great Britain 1.05.079

Silver Australia 1.07.708

Bronze Belgium 1.08.314

Seventh Ireland 1.12.509


M B 1km Time Trial

Gold Great Britain 1.59.686

Silver Australia 1.00.535

Bronze Netherlands 1.00.755

Fourteenth Ireland (Gordon & Byrne) 1.05.507

Sixteenth Ireland (Ryan & Hahessy) 1.06.426


M C4 4km Individual Pursuit

Gold METELKA Jozef (Slovakia) 4.30.584

Silver BRIDGWOOD Kyle (Australia) 4.36.461

Bronze VAN GASS Jaco (Great Britain) 4.43.461

Eighth GRIMES Ronan (Ireland) 4.55.538