Breaking down the barriers in Manchester

UCI World Para Track Cycling

Report and Photographs from John Coxon

A World time barrier was broken this weekend for the LC2-CP4 500 m time trial by USA’s Jennifer Schuble breaking the 39 second barrier and establishing a new World Record. GB’s Sarah Storey broke her personal 38 second barrier to record a personal best and gold in what really isn’t her speciality event. We had an incredible weekend of track cycling at the National Cycling Centre , Manchester Velodrome and at the end we saw an incredible 10 new World records fall out of a possible 20 with GB athletes re-enforcing their dominance with 14 medals ten of which were gold and nearest rivals the USA netting 11medals including 10 Golds. Sunday’s sessions gave us three new World Records in the Women’s events.

Sunday’s early session gave us thrilling qualifiers in the Women B&VI 3000m Pursuit. GB’s Lora Turnham and Becky Rimmington nailed an impressive sub 3.40 ride but both the USA's pairing of Karissa Whitsell and Mackenzie Woodring and then Ireland’s Catherine Walsh and Caroline Ryan just dipped under the GB pair’s time by mere fractions of a second. (It should be remembered there is no indoor Velodrome in Ireland so Walsh and Ryan’s have , largely, to train outdoors) In the final heat Aileen McGlynn and Ellen Hunter registered the fastest first 1km and were inside world record pace. They held that pace until 2km point, but seemed to tie up in the last few laps and in the end qualified fourth fastest being just under the 3.40 mark and had to go into a ride off of bronze against Turnham and Rimmington.

$Sunday’s early session gave us thrilling qualifiers in the Women B&VI 3000m Pursuit. GB’s Lora Turnham and Becky Rimmington nailed an impressive sub 3.40 ride but both the USA's pairing of Karissa Whitsell and Mackenzie Woodring and then Ireland’s Catherine Walsh and Caroline Ryan just dipped under the GB pair’s time by mere fractions of a second.$

Morning Session:-

Women B&VI 3000m Pursuit Qualifying

1. WHITSELL Karissa & WOODRING Mackenzie USA 3.39.111
2. WALSH Catherine & RYAN Caroline IRL 3.39.385
3. TURNHAM Lora & RIMMINGTON Rebecca GBR 3.39.560
4. MCGLYNN Aileen & HUNTER Ellen GBR 3.40.494
5. HANDRUP Henrike & HEINY Ellen GER 3.46.261
6. LOPEZ Ana & ESCRIBANO Beatriz ESP 3.59.707

So in the all British ride-off for Bronze McGlynn and Hunter set a furious pace and leveled with and Turnham by the 2km mark and they maintained the gap to win bronze with an impressive 3.38.196 with the other BG pair a couple of seconds adrift. In the gold medal final, USA’s Whitsell and Woddring established a narrow second lead by the I km marker over Ireland’s Walsh and Ryan. They increased that gap to almost 3 seconds at 2km and from then on the only question was whether yet another World Record was in the making and they delivered hitting the finish registering an impressive 3.36.362.

Women B&VI 3000m Pursuit Bronze medal final result

MCGLYNN Aileen & HUNTER Ellen GBR 3.38.196 beat
TURNHAM Lora & RIMMINGTON Rebecca GBR 3.42.293

Women B&VI 3000m Pursuit Gold medal final result World Record

WHITSELL Karissa & WOODRING Mackenzie USA 3.36.362 beat
WALSH Catherine & RYAN Caroline IRL 3.38.756

Sunday’s Afternoon Session

Sunday afternoon’s track feast was to provide two more world records in the 500m Time Trials in the LC2 and LC3-4-CP3 events.

Sarah expected as she put it, after actually taking gold in TT final , to “just dip” under 38 but in the end she blitzed it recording 37.430 to earn gold and it appeared she has the means to getting near to threatening the current world record which has stood since 2007. Of course , the way athlete’s are categorized it is not always in a rider’s best interests to shave bigger time chunks off personal bests as it might lead to re-classification.

First off was the LC1 category with GB’s Sarah Storey up against USA’s Greta Neimanas. The previous day Sarah, not really a sprint specialist , had registered a new world record in the qualifiers for the 3000m pursuit but quietly announced to me after wining that final that she’d kept something back . This was confirmed by her dad ~John who qualified her remark by saying that her goal was to break the 38 second barrier on Sunday in the 500m Time Trial. Sarah expected as she put it, after actually taking gold in TT final , to “just dip” under 38 but in the end she blitzed it recording 37.430 to earn gold and it appeared she has the means to getting near to threatening the current world record which has stood since 2007. Of course , the way athlete’s are categorized it is not always in a rider’s best interests to shave bigger time chunks off personal bests as it might lead to re-classification.

LC1 Final Result

1. STOREY Sarah GBR 37.430 PB
2. NEIMANAS Greta USA 39.480
3. HARKOWSKA Anna POL 40.481

USA’s Jennifer Schubble got gold in the LC2-CP4 500 m TT combined category, took both her event under the 39 second barrier for the first time (where her old World Record was 40.278 from Beijing Paralympics) and blitzed that earning gold in fine style with an incredible 38.834 some six seconds clear of her nearest rival on the day ,South Africa’s Roxanne Burns.

LC2 TT Final Result

1. SCHUBLE Jennifer USA 38.834 (World Record)
2. BURNS Roxanne Mathieson RSA 44.247
3. MOLNAR Marie-Claude CAN 44.837