Katie George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly are world champions after they stormed to gold in the Women’s B Time Trial at the Para-cycling World Championships in Dumfries on Thursday, August 10th.
In a successful day for Ireland at the UCI Cycling World Championships, the tandem duos victory was underlined by several top ten performances – including in the Para-cycling Road and Road World Championships.
But the day belonged to Dunlevy and Kelly as they won their first rainbow jersey as a pairing, with the win marking an incredible fourth world title for Dunlevy in the time trial and a first for her pilot, Kelly.
Dunlevy and Kelly finished over one minute ahead of their nearest competitors in a dominant performance. The Irish duo led at the first intermediate time check by 20 seconds, and they further extended their lead throughout to take a comfortable win.
Their time of 37:18.22 saw them finish with +1:01.51 to spare over Great Britain in second place as the pair look forward to Saturday’s road race.
Katie George Dunlevy said:
“I’m over the moon. It was a really hard race, I think I blew a bit halfway, but I just tried to give it my all. Linda did a fantastic job, it’s her first title, I’m delighted for her – she’s put so much hard work in. To come away with another rainbow jersey is unbelievable. Every medal means so much, it’s just that hard work but also to give back to the team behind us.”
“There’s no pressure (in the road race). We’ve got that gold there already, we’re just going to go into the road race and make it a hard race. There’s no pressure, (we’ll) enjoy it and looking forward to it.”
Linda Kelly said:
“We knew that the course suited both of us. It’s just a course that you would have more momentum on if you select the right gears and take the right lines. I’m absolutely thrilled with my first title.”
In the Para-cycling Road World Championships, William Clifford was the first rider down the ramp this morning for Ireland competing in the MC3 Individual Time Trial.
Clifford completed the 16.9km course in a time of 24:23.09, just a minute and a half down on gold medal winner Matthias Schindler of Germany placing 14th overall, a positive result for his time competing at the World Championships. Chris Burns also finished in 14th place in the Individual Time Trial competing in the MC2 category.
Fresh from winning two bronze medals on the track, Richael Timothy placed 7th in the WC3 Individual Time Trial.
Unfortunately, Cormac O’Callaghan crashed during the MC1 Individual Time Trial and as a result has withdrawn from the road race on Saturday. He is doing okay now and is being well looked after by the medical team. We wish him a speedy recovery.
Elsewhere, Men’s B duo Damien Vereker and Mitchell McLaughlin recorded a top ten finish in the Time Trial as they placed in 9th.
Ronan Grimes put in a solid performance in the MC4 Individual Time Trial and left it all out there on the course to finish in 6th place. The Athenry man covered the course in 38:07.86 to finish +2:15.01 off the eventual winner.
Ronan Grimes said:
“I couldn’t have done a whole lot more I don’t think, so I have to be happy with 6th. A lot of strong lads ahead of me so I gave everything I could and that’s just the result on the day.”
“It’s a really good course, it’s like racing at home. A lot of heavy roads, bumpy corners, tight turn, s a bit of everything on it. So a real sporting course so I think you know it’s an honest result today, I don’t think you had a fluky result so everybody ahead of me deserved to be there.”
“I’m feeling relatively strong anyways so I think, really looking forward to Saturday to defend the title.”
Results – Thursday, 10th August
Para-Cycling Road
Men C3 Time Trial: William Clifford – 14th
Men C2 Time Trial: Chris Burns – 14th
Men C1 Time Trial: Cormac O’Callaghan – DNF
Women C3 Time Trial: Richael Timothy – 7th
Men B Time Trial: Damien Vereker & Mitchell McLaughlin – 9th
Men C4 Time Trial: Ronan Grimes – 6th
Women B Time Trial: Katie George Dunlevy & Linda Kelly – 1st
Schedule – Friday, 11th August
Para-Cycling Road
14:15 Men H4 Road Race: Allister MacSorley
16:15 Men H3 Road Race: Declan Slevin
