Double bronze for the NZ Para Cycling Team
World champions Emma Foy and Hannah van Kampen along with Te Awamutu’s Nicole Murray both won bronze medals at the UCI Para Cycling Track World Championships in Canada.
Murray won her bronze in the individual pursuit C5, a repeat of her performance at last year’s world championships.
“My qualifying race was not my best, but I managed to pull through with an acceptable time. I really wanted to redeem myself for the final today and I’m really glad about how I went about that.
“I just hammered out some pretty consistent lap times today and managed to secure a bronze. You have to be happy with a personal best.”
Murray went onto place fifth in the scratch race C5, a new race for both Murray and teammates Anna Taylor and Sarah Ellington. This contributed to a fourth placing in the women’s omnium C5, with Murray having a left wrist amputation from an accident.
Foy (Marsden Wheelers - Whangarei) and van Kampen (Ramblers - Hawkes Bay) also repeated their performance from last year, winning a bronze in the tandem 1000m time trial.
They finished less than 0.5 seconds behind the silver medallists Larissa Klaassen and Imke Brommer (Netherlands).
Foy was born with ocular cutaneous albinism resulting in a visual impairment, with van Kampen the sighted pilot that rides on the front of the tandem bike.
“We were really happy to be so close to the silver medallists who are a sprint specialist tandem. We also knew that having two pursuit races yesterday would make today pretty tough. To come away with a bronze medal is a great result,” said Foy.
In other racing Anna Taylor (Te Awamutu) was seventh in the individual pursuit C4 in 4:04.623, which was a personal best by three seconds.
Taylor, who has a spinal condition resulting in a loss of muscle power in both legs, went on to place fifth in the scratch race to give her an overall seventh place in the omnium C4.
Sarah Ellington (Auckland) was fifth in the scratch race C2 also contributing to her overall fourth place in the omnium. Ellington has incomplete paraplegia from an accident resulting in a loss of muscle power in both legs.
Mitchell Wilson (Te Awamutu) and Jackson Ogle (Te Awamutu) made their event debut competing in the men’s tandem 1000m time trial, finishing eighth.
They return to the track tomorrow to wrap up the world championships in the tandem sprint.
Earlier Nick Blincoe (Auckland) wrapped up his world championships finishing 14th in the highly competitive individual pursuit C4.
CAPTION: The tandem pair of Emma Foy and Hannah van Kampen (left) and Nicole Murray (right) on the podium with their bronze medals. (Credit: Robert Jones)