Silver for NZ at Cycling Para-Cycling Road World Championships

31 August 2014, 7:17PM
Paralympics New Zealand

The NZ Para-Cycling team won a silver medal today at the 2014 UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships in Greenville, USA.  The tandem pairing of Emma Foy and Laura Fairweather (sighted pilot) took to the road in tough conditions and were pleased with their gutsy performance.

Laura Fairweather (sighted pilot) said, “Silver is a pleasing result for Emma and I given the tough conditions. There is very strong competition amongst the tandems and things have really stepped up since London so very pleased to come away with a medal.”  She continued, “Coming straight from winter to 40degrees meant the heat was the most limiting factor to our performance but we gave it all we had on the day and it wasn't enough to win. The Japanese have featured at our track camps and competitions in the past so was great to see them give such a commendable performance.”

NZ’s tandem pairing of Phillpa Gray and Kylie Young (sighted pilot) placed 8th.

Brendon Cameron (Head Performance Coach, Para-Cycling) said, “It was a gutsy performance from the girls out there today. The heat really took its toll and affected our girls the longer the race went on, but in saying that the Japanese pairing were faultless out there and backed up their podium performance in the recent World Cup in Spain proving it wasn’t a fluke and they are a new force to be reckoned with leading into the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.”  He continues, “Even though we were aiming to win this event, we need to keep this in perspective after coming off a winter build. Laura was riding in single figure temperatures only 2 weeks ago in Invercargill and to back this up in 36’c temperatures today, despite doing some work in heat labs in New Zealand was a big call. Again Emma Foy has backed up her new status at the International level collecting another World medal in the last 12 months. She is developing into a cyclist every month and gaining more experience at each major event”.

The performance of the two tandems followed the 10th placing of hand-cyclist Sue Reid, Tiffiney Perry and Shane Blows in the team relay event yesterday. 

The hand-cyclists will again take to the road tomorrow in their respective Time Trials.

Please note international live streaming will be available on final two days of competition.

The livestreaming can be found at www.usparalympics.org at the following NZ times:
• Monday 1 Sept, 12.00 – 3.00am and 6.30 – 7.00am
• Tuesday 2 Sept, 12.00 – 2.30am and 5.30 – 7.30am.

This will include coverage of the men’s and women’s cycle and tandem races, and the handcycle and trike races. Additional on-demand videos will be available of the handcycle relay and time trial events.


The ten strong NZ team including three tandem combinations and four Hand-Cyclists are competing amongst 450 elite international athletes from 45 countries.

For message of support and results go to:
• Facebook – Paralympics New Zealand
• Twitter - @NZParalympics
www.paralympics.org.nz
http://www.greenvillesc2014.com/raceinfo.aspx

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