January 30/20 22:21 pm - Gold Medal for Kate O'Brien on Day 1 of Para Track Worlds
Posted by Editoress on 01/30/20
Canada opened the Para Track Cycling World Championships on Thursday with a gold medal on their home track in Milton, Ontario. Kate O'Brien, of Calgary, in her first international Para-cycling competition, became world champion in the women's C4 category 500 metre time trial, setting a world record of 35.223 seconds.
O'Brien has returned to competition after a two year battle with injury. A sprinter on the national team who represented Canada at the Rio Olympics in 2016, O'Brien suffered a career-ending head injury in a training crash. After months of rehabilitation, she has joined the Para program, scoring a stunning victory in her first competition.
"I am pleasantly surprised," admitted O'Brien, "and looking forward to wearing the rainbow stripes [as world champion]. The world record was certainly a surprise. It was really, really fun and amazing to be back competing. I'm looking forward to what's to come."
In other Canadian results, Ross Wilson finished sixth in the C1 men's Individual Pursuit, and Tristen Chernove was fifth in the C2 men's Individual Pursuit. Marie-claude Molnar was 10th and Keely Shaw 12th in the Women's C4 500TT.
Ross Wilson
Tristen Chernove
Multiple world records were set in addition to O'Brien's. In the men's C1 IP, the record was broken three times, and in the men's C2 IP it was broken twice.
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