It may forever be known as ‘Wonderful Wednesday’ in the context of Irish Paralympic history as the team combined to win two gold medals, a silver and a bronze; a handsome tally of four.
Two gold medals in the space of less than two minutes in the Road Racing at Ponstal, a seaside resort outside Rio, complemented Colin Lynch’s silver medal earlier in the programme and a bronze medal late Thursday night from Ellen Keane in the pool.
Eoghan Clifford produced an imperious ride to justify his pre-race mantle of favourite in the Men’s C3 Time Trial, while just a matter of minutes after he crossed the finish line, the Women’s B Tandem of Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal made it a truly golden afternoon in the Brazilian sunshine.
The 35-year-old NUIG lecturer from Galway had previously won a bronze in the C3 3000 metres Individual Pursuit at the Velodrome in the Olympic Park and will have a chance to add to his tally when he races in the C1-3 Road race on Friday.
A three-times world champion, Clifford, who suffers from a hereditary muscular degenerative disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth. First through he’s entitled to celebrate this triumph.
“Physically it was painful. Power wise it wasn’t one of my best ever rides. I was really disciplined during the ride. I was a bit angry, I wasn’t happy with the ride earlier in the week and wanted to prove that I am a better rider than that.”
Clifford spoke of the work that the doctor, physio, coach, team manager all did to get him right, or as right as he could be given the knee injury. “As down as I was during the week they picked me up. It’s a real credit to them that I won.
“I don’t want to overblow it (the knee) but the simple act of being out on the bike over the past two days has been sore. Yesterday I had a bit of a rant to my coach and told him I wanted to throw the bike into the sea. He stopped me.
“I delighted but relieved. As the reigning (World) Time Trial champion it is almost a relief that you haven’t lost.”
Dunlevy and McCrystal stored up the hurt and disappointment of the track to produce a stunning performance in claiming their golf medal by over 20 seconds. The shriek when they were told that they had won could be heard in Dublin.
Dunleavy beamed: “We are ecstatic, over the moon. It is the culmination of four years hard work.” When asked about the Road Race on Saturday, she added: “having won this gold medal, the pressure is off a little and we are going to enjoy it. We still want to win.
Lynch, the 45-year-old Canadian born, cyclist, whose father is from Drogheda, was disappointed with his performance in the Velodrome, but this should compensate nicely as he claimed the silver medal behind Canada’s Tristen Chernove.
“After London I had to do a lot of soul searching. I had to ask myself if I was capable of performing at the highest level still. After making some changes, just reassessing everything I was doing, I was able to come back. I changed everything, new coaches, new equipment; I got a new cycling leg made for Rio with the help of a lot of people back home.”
Keane went into the S8 100 metres Breaststroke final with the second quickest time from the heats but couldn’t quite match that performance in what was otherwise a brilliant swim.
Cork’s Patrick O’Leary has made Irish Paralympic history by qualifying for tomorrow’s KL3 canoeing final in Rio. It is the first time the sport has been included in the Games.
After finishing third in his heat in a time of 45.97 seconds at the Lagoa stadium, he eclipsed that mark in the semi-final by a second and a half to earn a place on Thursday’s final, which takes place at 2.10pm, Irish time.
O’Leary said: “It feels absolutely brilliant. I was coming in ranked seventh and if I hadn’t made a final I would have been really disappointed even though there’s eight places in the final. It’s about performance for me now. All I can do is go as hard as I can. There’s no pressure on me.”
Ireland’s Damien Vereker and Sean Hahessy produced an excellent performance to finish sixth in the Men’s Tandem B Time Trial, while the other Irish bike of Peter Ryan and Marcin Mizgajski, late qualifiers for the Games on foot of the Russian ban, came in 17th.
Kildare’s Sean Baldwin managed 29th place in his final event in the shooting, the R6 50m Rifle Prone while Westmeath’s Declan Slevin was 11th in the final of the H3 Handcycling road race.
Ciara Staunton from Dublin finished 11th in the Women’s H2-3 Handcycling time trial. The 30-year-old former wheelchair rugby international, competing in her first Paralympics, was up against a field, the majority of whom were more physically capable and drawn from a different classification.
The Sonar class Keelboat of Austin O’Carroll, Ian Costelloe and John Twomey were placed ninth and 13th in races four, five and six to lie 13th overall.
The Ireland Seven-a-side team lost 2-1 to the USA.
