UCI PARA-CYCLING TRACK WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, DAY 4 WRAP RIO DE JANEIRO
Cambridge rider Devon Briggs sealed his love for Rio in winning a gold medal on the final day of the UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships today.
It is the second successive world championship track title for the 21-year-old after success at the same velodrome last year, and a boost in his return to the sport after injury thwarted his Paralympic hopes in Paris.
It capped another strong performance for the four-strong Cycling New Zealand team who scored three medals today for a total of 13 medals for the championships.
More importantly were the performances in the new-look UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships with several new events on the schedule including longer distance races and elimination race.
“It was a good four days with a new format and some new races in the UCI calendar with most of these to be raced at the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles,” said Cycling New Zealand Para-cycling Head Coach, Brendon Cameron.
“With the new events we altered our training, and raced at local able-bodied races at club and provincial level and worked more on our tactical and technical things.
“The best takeaway from the four days here has been all the individual efforts timewise. Every athlete here had PBs – and most of them have been in the programme for a few years, so the results are really encouraging.”
Cameron singled praise for the tandem with Emma Foy returning to the sport for several years and pilot Jessie Hodges having retired last year.
“To have this new combination being on the podium with the Paris Paralympic champions after a short run-up to these championships was impressive.”
Cycling New Zealand High Performance Director, Ryan Hollows was equally impressed looking ahead to Los Angeles 2028.
“The results were very positive this week from the Para-cycling team,” said Hollows.
“There were new events and formats that will shake up the Paralympic Game events in LA so it was good experience to race these new events here.
“We will continue to build, learning the craft of these new events and from here look positively going forward.”
Highlight of the final day was the gold medal to Briggs, who sat in the pack for much of the 10km race, helping to close-down attacks and biding his time, until he unleashed his sprint on the final lap for an impressive victory.
“Overall it has been an amazing week. For me it has been a week of highs and lows,” said Briggs.
“Yesterday did not go the way I expected or wanted it to go. Today I took expectation out of the race and went out and enjoyed the race and managed to race well and win.
“The kilo and match sprints at the start of the week were really good. Yesterday not so much but today I was happy with it. I rode a good strong race and had a good sprint at the end. And I get to wear the rainbow jersey for another year.”
Waikato’s Nicole Murray, who enjoyed world championship medal success on the road seven weeks ago, adapted quickly to claim another medal today, with a bronze in the C5 10,000m. She rode down the attempted breaks and was strong in the spring to finish on the podium for her fourth medal of the week.
Rotorua Siobhan Terry, riding in the same combined 10,000m race, also followed the pace well in the pack to push through behind the C4 leaders to claim the bronze in the C5 category for her third medal this week.
Earlier Foy and Hodges finished fifth in the sprint ride-off.
Cycling attention now turns to the UCI Track World Championships near-by Chile starting on Thursday.
New Zealand Results:
WB, Sprint for 5th: Emma Foy/Jessie Hodges (NZL) beat Hannah Chadwick/Elizabeth Stevenson (USA).
Men C3 10kms: Devon Briggs (NZL) 1; Finlay Graham (GBR) 2, Eduardo Santas Asensio (ESP) 3.
Women C4 10kms: Tara Neyland (AUS) 1, Alana Forster (AUS) 2, Siobhan Terry (NZL) 3.
Women C5 10kms: Claudia Cretti (AUS) 1, Anna Harkowska (POL) 2, Nicole Murray (NZL) 3.
