Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Gallagher claims fifth straight crown

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Parent Category: Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Category: News 2010

Published on Thursday, 04 February 2010 15:40

Written by Marcella Crisanti

Beijing Paralympic gold medallist Michael Gallagher (VIC) claimed his fifth consecutive Para-cycling individual pursuit crown with gold in the C5 men's 4km event in a time of 4min51.661sec in the afternoon session on day three of the Australian Track Championships at Adelaide's Super-Drome. “There was a bit of a mechanical problem today, and I don’t feel tired now, so I am happy that that was the problem,” said Gallagher, adding, “But I was hoping to do a good time today as all the training has been towards the pursuit, so it will be nice to have a good hit out in the kilometre tomorrow." The International Cycling Union (UCI) recently made changes to the Para-cycling classifications to group all Para-cyclists who ride standard bicycles into one classification. This has seen athletes who have cerebral palsy and those with locomotion problems combined into one classification. The athletes are then assigned one of five sub-classifications based on the their individual functionality. The changes saw Gallagher reclassified into the C5 class from his previous LC1 in which he held the World Records for both the pursuit and kilometre time trial. The UCI is yet to set the benchmark World Record times for the new classifications after which time Cycling Australia will do the same for Australian records. In the women 3km individual pursuit events, New South Wales’ Beijing Paralympian Jayme Paris took gold in the women C1 event in a time of 5min01.764sec, whilst in the C2 category, West Australian Morgan Shaw stopped the clock in 5min17.541sec to also win gold. West Australia’s Claire McLean took gold in the C5 category (4min11.719sec) and 2009 World Champion, Susan Powell, rode a time of 4mins9.391secs to win the C4 event. In the men's Para-cycling competition, New South Wales’ Jarrad Langmead won the C2 men 3km (4min38.581sec), defeating Victoria’s Cameron Muir (4min53.270sec) in the final. Ryan Hughes of Tasmania clocked 5min12.447sec for gold in the C4 4km event and New South Wales’ Cameron Pell took the honours in the C5 U19 3km pursuit in 4min01.333sec. In the B (blind and visually impaired) tandem pursuit finals, Canberra’s Brandie O’Connor and pilot Kerry Knowler were awarded the silver medal for their time of 5min51.999sec and in the B men's 4km event, Queensland’s Bryce Lindores and pilot Sean Finning of Victoria (4min33.956sec) defeated Nathan Johnston (NSW) and pilot Matthew Meisel-Dennis of Canberra (5min9.548sec). A detailed event schedule, ticketing information, entry list and results can be found on the Cycling Australia website.