Disability World Championships - Day 1

19th August 2007

Report & pics: Dave Mellor

Day 1 of the World Disability Cycling Championships saw the pursuit qualifying.

Personal Best for Williams in 6th Place.

Gary Williams who started his Paralympic career in Barcelona 1992 today recorded a lifetime best to record 4mins 58.00 seconds for the 4km Pursuit beating his previous best by 2 whole seconds. The ride of the day though went to Australian Michael Gallagher the defending LC1 World Champion who demolished his previous World Record by an astonishing 7 seconds to record 4mins 37seconds. The emergence of the young Australian Gallagher has moved this category to a new level with the record coming down by 20 seconds in two years.

Qualification.

1. Michael Gallagher  Australia 4:37.706 WR
2. Wolfgang Eibeck  Austria  4:50..344
3. Fabio Triboldi  Italy
other

6. Gary Williams GB  4:58.475

Gary Williams Photo Sequence

Gary awaits the off

Going off the start

Post-race warm-down

Personal Best for Richardson earns top 10 place.

Welsh athlete Simon Richardson in his first World Championship astounded with a personal best and a top 10 position in the 3km LC3 Pursuit. Recording 4mins 8.005 seconds this was not the perfectly judged pursuit ride of a seasoned athlete. Coming through the first 1km check in third place he slowly slipped behind his schedule for 8th position at 2km and 9th position at the finish but this bodes well for the 1km Time Trial in two days time.

Qualification.

1. Tobias Graf   Germany 3:58.565
2. Laurant Thirionet France  3:58.885
3. Antonio Garcia Spain  4:01.542
other
9.Simon Richardson GB  4:08.005

Simon Richardson Photo Sequence

Simon follows his bike into the track centre

Mechanic Pete Taylor prepares to hand over Simon's steed

Warm-up (left) and post-race

Final adjustments on the start

Monday 20th sees the 500m Time Trial for defending World Champion Sarah Bailey, and the 1km Time Trial also for defending World Champions Anthony Kappes, Aileen McGlynn and Darren Kenny. An unknown quantity in the CP3 category is Rik Waddon who has successfully appealed his CP4 classification and who now will compete in the CP3 category with Darren Kenny. Following 4 months of tests and observations, Rik's CP3 classification was made permanent today.