The opening day of the 2020 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Canada, saw a number of superb performances including three new world records. None was more emotional than Canada’s Kate O’Brien taking the gold medal and rainbow jersey of UCI World Champion in the WC4 500m time trial.
It’s a brilliant moment for any rider to earn the stripes on their home track, but for O’Brien it’s an amazing chapter in her story as she set a new world record at her first UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in her comeback competition after suffering a serious head injury.
In Thursday afternoon’s WC4 500m time trial, O’Brien was first of 13 athletes to ride. She went out fast – and stayed fast – setting a new fastest time of 35.223 seconds, at an average speed of 51.103km/h over the two laps.
Successive riders gave it their all, but none could come close to the new mark – putting the pressure on previous world record holder and 2019 UCI World Champion Kadeena Cox (Great Britain), who was last to ride. Cox had seen O’Brien take her record, and then watched on as none of the other women got within 3 seconds of the Canadian’s time.
At the start of the day Cox’s record was 35.716sec. The former track and field athlete (gold medalist in the T38 400m sprint at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and three-time sprint World Champion) rode 36.653 in Milton, which put her clear in silver medal position.
O’Brien’s story is unique. After playing basketball in her youth she competed in bobsleigh before an injury forced her to miss out on Olympic selection, after which she prioritised her other love, cycling. O’Brien became a successful track cyclist, representing Canada in able-bodied cycling, including gold in the team sprint at the 2015 Pan-American Games in Toronto and silver in the same event in the 2017 Los Angeles Track World Cup. But in 2017, O’Brien suffered a major accident in training, colliding with a pacing motorcycle, resulting in broken bones and a traumatic brain injury.
After a difficult and lengthy recovery, Kate O’Brien’s comeback was complete on the Milton track, and the Canadian Paralympic Team was quick to celebrate:
Double Dutch
It was a great night for anyone who enjoys the Dutch national anthem, which is already becoming a regular theme at this year’s UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships.
The toe-tapping tempo was set as early as the first event, the tandem team sprint, with the Netherlands and Poland qualifying 1-2 through to the gold final. 2016 1km B time trial UCI World Champion Larissa Klaassen and her sighted pilot Imke Brommer set off behind Vincent ter Schure (triple medallist at the Rio 2016 Paralympics, across road and track) and his pilot, Timo Fransen, who immediately took an advantage over the Polish tandem riders. The Dutch men crossed the line after three laps in 49.696 sec (54.330km/h), almost 2 seconds ahead of Angelika Biedrzycka and her pilot Edyta Jasinska.
This was immediately backed up with another Dutch win in the WC5 500m time trial as Caroline Groot went more than 1 second faster than anyone else, putting para-cycling legend Sarah Storey into bronze position with an unmatchable pace. “It’s a good feeling, I’m very happy with it,” said Groot. “There is no strategy in 500m, you just go!”
Records beaten and jerseys retained
The first day of competition also witnessed great performances from riders including Alfonso Cabello Llamas of Spain (Kilo gold medallist at the London 2012 Paralympics), who clocked up his third successive MC5 1km time trial World Championships win. Great Britain’s Jody Cundy took his seventh consecutive win in the MC4 Kilo time trial, the world record-holder beating the rest of the field by almost a second.
In the individual pursuit, it’s congratulations to Sini Zeng (China) and Paige Greco (Australia) for retaining their rainbow jerseys in the WC2 and WC3 classifications respectively. And after the MC1 world record was broken three times in qualifying, it was Zhangyu Li (China) who finished the day with a world record, gold medal and rainbow jersey. A new MC2 world record was set in qualifying by Edwoud Vromant (Belgium) who went on to bet the mark again in the final as he took gold. In MC3, Australia’s David Nicholas won the tightest of races to claim a fourth successive title and retain his jersey.
You’ll find the full results from Day 1 here: https://www.uci.org/para-cycling/events/uci-para-cycling-track-world-championships
The action from Milton continues on Friday with more time trial action and the tandem pursuit.