Irish riders were in action again on Friday, with Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal riding superbly to land Ireland’s second paralympic bronze medal at the UCI’s new expanded world championships in Scotland.
The multiple Paralympic champions were fourth fastest in the qualifiers on Wednesday, 1.053 seconds behind Anne Sophie Centis and Elis Delzenne in the bronze medal clash.
However despite that margin the French duo were on the back foot for the entire final, with Dunlevy and McCrystal beating them by 0.401 seconds and securing the medal.
Ronan Grimes had been the first Irish medallist at the worlds, netting third in the C4 individual pursuit on Thursday evening. That race followed an identical pattern, with Grimes similarly finishing fourth behind the French entry in the qualifiers but beating them in the bronze medal clash.
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Ireland had two other medallists on Friday, with Marine Lenehan netting a superb silver in the 19-34 age category at the Gran Fondo world championships, while Julie Rae secured a fine bronze in the 55-59 age group.
Meanwhile paracycling rider Chris Burns was a fine second in the C2 200m time trial. While this is not a medal event, it counts towards the omnium and moves him to sixth overall in that contest. The 1km TT and the scratch race are the two remaining omnium events to be contested.
Richael Timothy was third in the C3 200m flying start time trial and sits third overall in that omnium as a result.
Of the other riders in action, Grimes was eighth in the C4 1km time trial, seeing a new national record of 1.08.154. William Clifford was 13th in the C3 event.
Meanwhile Alice Sharpe, Kelly Murphy, Lara Gillespie and Emily Kay competed in the non-paralympic team pursuit on Friday morning. Their time of four minutes 21.653 seconds put them ninth, one place outside qualification for the next round, but Sharpe said the placing brought benefits anyway.
“We’ve got some vital qualification points there and put a bit of a gap, or a buffer, in between the teams that will be around us for those final qualification points,” she explained.
The Irish quartet were just 2.445 seconds off the time of the Canadians, who were eighth and took the final qualification slot.
Kay was back in action in the evening scratch race, placing 12th in a race won by the American rider Jennifer Valente.
Ireland had a number of riders in the mountain bike downhill competitions, also run off on Friday. Oisin O’Callaghan was best of the Irish in the elite qualifiers, taking 26th, with Christopher Cumming 58th, Niall Clerkin 65th and Conor Bate 68th.
Calum Morris finished 26th in the junior race.
The UCI world championships continues on Saturday with a full programme of racing. This will include the Under-23 road race, where Darren Rafferty will be one of the tipped riders.
