Australia Wraps Track Cycling Campaign

Australia has wrapped up its Paralympic Games track cycling campaign with a haul of six medals and three world records from the eight events at Izu Velodrome.

The team claimed three gold, two silver and a bronze medal to rank second behind Great Britain, which won six gold, six silver and two bronze.

Paige Greco kicked off the Aussie campaign on day one of competition taking a whopping eight seconds off her own world record to qualify fastest in the 3000m individual pursuit C3. Later the same day she backed up with an even faster finals performance of 3:50.815 to claim Australia’s first gold medal of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Also on the opening day, in the 3000m individual pursuit C4, Emily Petricola was on her own world record mission. She slashed six-seconds of her mark to move into the gold medal decider with her time of 3:38.061. In the final she again set a cracking pace and overtook her opponent with three laps to go to cement victory.

Australia’s third gold medal came through Amanda Reid, who posted a C2 World and Paralympic Games record time of 38.487 to win the 500m time trial C1-3. In the process ,the proud Wemba Wemba and Guring-gai woman became the first indigenous Australian to claim a Paralympic Games cycling gold medal.

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In the men’s events, Darren Hicks took home the silver medal in the 4000m individual pursuit C2, while Alistair Donohoe delivered a personal best time in the 4000m individual pursuit C5 competition to finish in second place.

David Nicholas was another to lower his previous best time and claimed a bronze medal with his ride in the 4000m individual pursuit C3.

Away from the medals, there were personal bests for Meg Lemon in finishing fourth in the 3000m Individual Pursuit C4, and Gordon Allan, who placed fifth in the kilometre time trial C1-3 (C2), with both on debut at the Paralympic Games.

Lemon, Reid and Allan also contested he 750m team sprint mixed, but it was not a focus event for them, and they did not move past the qualifying round.

The Tokyo campaign has ended for Reid and Allan, but the others will be joined by Carol Cooke, Stuart Jones, Stuart Tripp and Grant Allen for next week’s road competition. On Tuesday, all ten riders will be in action in the time trial events across various classifications and distances.

Cooke is trying for her third straight Paralympic Games time trial gold medal in the T1-2 while Tripp, who was second in Rio in 2016, will contest the H5 race against the clock. Fellow hand cyclist Grant Allen will make his Games debut in the H4 event, as will Stuart Jones in the T1-2 class.

Nicholas is a three-time world champion, and the defending Paralympic champion, for the C3 time trial, while Hicks lines up the in the C2 race as the 2019 time trial world champion in his class.

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Petricola is the 2019 world champion in her C4 class, while Lemon has claimed time trial bronze three times at world championships. Greco won the C3 event at the 2019 word titles. Donohoe claimed the silver medal in the C5 time trial in Rio but has since won a world crown in the same event.

Entry lists are yet to be issued with rider’s individual starting times to be confirmed on Monday.

By: Gennie Sheer – Paralympics Australia
Posted: 28 August 2021