Gold medal and World Champions title for NZ Paralympians

Defending champions Emma Foy (Marsden Wheelers, Whangarei) and Hannah van Kampen (Ramblers, Hawkes Bay) today retained their world title to win the Tandem Individual Pursuit by seven seconds at the UCI Para Cycling Track World Championships in Canada.

This is the second successive world championship title for Foy and van Kampen on the track.

“We wanted to do our best ride and we did that. Our qualifying ride was probably one of the best rides we have ever done together. It is great to have our main event now complete and our goals achieved,” said Foy.

Coach Damian Wiseman was thrilled with the performance.

“Emma and Hannah had a great day today riding one of the best pursuits collectively and technically that they have executed in competition so far. They rode the most consistent lap times that we've seen out of them and given that they are the current world record holders, to come out and deliver a ride that was underneath their most recent world record time was just a reflection of how perfectly they executed their ride.”

Foy and van Kampen will compete in the Tandem Time Trial tomorrow, an event which they won bronze in 2019.

Foy was born with ocular cutaneous albinism resulting in a visual impairment. Van Kampen is the sighted pilot that rides with Foy on the front of the tandem bike.

In other rides Nicole Murray (Te Awamutu) placed fourth in the Flying 200m C5 in 12.659sec at her third UCI Para Cycling Track World Championships.

Para cyclist Sarah Ellington (Auckland) placed sixth in a personal best time of 15.231s in the individual time trial C2. The gold medallist Zhenling Song (China) set a new world record previously held by New Zealand’s Paula Tesoriero since 2009.

Anna Taylor (Te Awamutu) placed eighth in the flying 200m C4 in 13.762s.

Tomorrow all 10 members of the New Zealand Para Cycling Team will compete.

CAPTION:Emma Foy and Hannah van Kampen celebrate. (Robert Jones Photo)