Four golds and three world records for cyclists in Manchester

Britain’s cyclists won a further four gold and one silver medal and set three world records on the third day of the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester, adding to the five golds, two silvers and four bronze medals won yesterday. 

Darren Kenny was again in impressive form taking his third gold of the championships, this time with Jody Cundy and Mark Bristow in the team sprint. The threesome raced 49.958 to beat the world record and take the gold over China in second place.
 
Thirty-eight-year old Kenny said: “I really wanted to get the world record in the team sprint because I didn’t compete in that at the world championships so lost the record but I hold all the other records for my category.

“This event is great to see what the other teams can do and the Chinese really came out and surprised us in the team sprint. A year ago we were head and shoulders above everyone else but the standard has moved on.”

Sarah Storey added to yesterday’s bronze, won in the 500m time trial, by taking gold in the LC1/2 3km pursuit. The swimmer-turned cyclist beat her own world record in the morning heats to go into the final confident of success and managed to catch China’s Ju Fang Zhou after just 1:32.512 to take the victory.

There was also a new world record set by Aileen McGlynn and Ellen Hunter of 3:36.752 in the women’s B/VI tandem 3km pursuit, beating the old marker set in Athens by USA cyclists Karissa Whitsell and Katie Compton.

The final gold went to Anthony Kappes and Jon Norfolk, with their second title of the championships, beating fellow Brits Simon Jackson and Barney Storey into second place. This was former Paralympic judo champion Jackson’s second silver of the competition, his first major event as a cyclist.

He said: “I’m not even in my third week of cycling yet so it’s absolutely fantastic. I’ve got a new lease of life.”

Meanwhile at the Manchester Regional Arena there were mixed fortunes for Britain in the wheelchair basketball, with the women’s team losing to China and the men beating Sweden in the semi-finals.

The GB women had beaten the Chinese in the preliminary Games yesterday but they proved too strong in today’s re-match and overcame the Brits 34-49 to take the place in the final against Holland.

Britain will now face Brazil in tomorrow’s bronze medal play-off.

Paralympic star Clare Strange said: “We just made too many mistakes. There’s lots to work on before we go to Beijing but its better to be making the mistakes here than at the Games.

“We need to play our systems better because we can see them working so often. Hopefully now we can go out and get a good result in the bronze medal match.

“Playing in this event is great – it’s a good atmosphere and tense so it’s a great opportunity to improve by the time we get to Beijing.”

British women’s team coach Garry Peel said: “I’m disappointed but this tournament is about getting ready for Beijing and we know that we’re going to be pressurised out there.

“I thought our fitness would have come through more but we just couldn’t secure the easy shots. They were very strong and very mobile though.”

There were however better fortunes for Britain’s men, who managed to overcome Sweden for the second time in as many days, winning 64-49 to book their place in tomorrow’s final.

Head coach Murray Treseder said: ”I’m moderately pleased with that – it got us into the final but we’ve got to remember that Sweden don’t have their top player here, which would have made a big difference to them.

“I thought we had control of the game the whole time, we missed some free throws at the end, which is something we need to work on, but we now only have 33 games to go until the Paralympics.”

Many of Britain’s top swimmers were also in action today in a preliminary event ahead of tomorrow’s main competition.

The Paralympic World Cup, now in its fourth year, is taking place at Manchester from May 7 to 11, with wheelchair basketball, track cycling, swimming and athletics all featured in the five-day sports event.