Track queens go separate ways as they switch to road
New discipline, same idea. When medal-winning duo Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal saddle up again today for the road time trial event in Paris, they’ll do so with the same determination that yielded a silver medal on the track on Sunday.
This time, however, they go their separate ways. Dunlevy’s bike will be piloted by Linda Kelly, while McCrystal partners with Josie Healion.
McCrystal explained the move was to help her concentrate on the track event and to give Dunlevy the best possible chance of picking up yet more medals.
“I chose to step away from the road with Katie, so Katie moved to the road with Linda,” she said.
“I’d like to go back [to] full-time working and Katie is a gold-medal bike on the road. It’s a gold-medal bike going forward, so I made the decision last year to step away so I can concentrate more on the track. It is shorter and harder, but she [Katie] is going to go and do amazing things, herself and Linda, no doubt.”
The Dunlevy/Kelly partnership has already proved fruitful as they are the reigning world champions in time trial after finishing a minute ahead of their nearest rival in Glasgow last year.
It was a remarkable fourth world title for Dunlevy in the time trial and a first for Kelly. Dunlevy is also the reigning Paralympic champion but picked up that result with McCrystal as pilot.
That experience will aid Healion, who is experiencing her first games, but they also pack a punch on the road.
As a pairing, they finished fourth in Glasgow in the road race which was won by Dunlevy and Kelly, just a second off a place on the podium.
And while the time trial is a different discipline, the early signs are that along with McCrystal, Healion looks to be in good form. When she was partnered with Kelly for the 3,000m individual pursuit on the track, they took a remarkable eight seconds off their personal best.
Richael Timothy is another who set a P Bin Paris and she will continue to gather experience here, while Ron an Grim es has picked up time-trial medals in various events and also placed sixth in Tokyo.
Damien Vereker and guide Mitchell McLaughlin are also in time-trial action and have posted some impressive times.
In the 4000m pursuit, they took six seconds off their PB and set a new Irish record in the process.
Elsewhere, Shauna Bocquet goes in her third event of the Paralympic Games, the T54 100m heat, while Sarah Slattery is in action in equestrian.
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