Cyclist Colin Lynch wins Ireland’s fourth Paralympics medal

Colin Lynch has won Ireland's fourth medal of the Paralympics and the second for cycling with a super performance in the C2 Men's Time Trial at Pontal.

He joins Jason Smyth (gold), Michael McKillop (gold) and Eoghan Clifford (bronze) as Irish medal winners so far, nudging Ireland closer to the pre-Games target of eight.

The 45-year-old Canadian born, cyclist, whose father is from Drogheda, was disappointed with his performance in the Velodrome, but this should compensate nicely as he claimed the silver medal behind Canada’s Tristen Chernove.

Lynch finished some 19 seconds behind the Canadian and 15 ahead of bronze medallist China’s Guihua Liang. The Irish rider’s victory also helps to salve the heartbreak of the Paralympics in London (2012) when he missed out on a track medal by a tenth of a second and finished fifth in the Time Trial on the road.

He grew up in Canada before moving to England in 2005. As a 16-year-old broke his foot playing rugby, but not feeling any pain, he walked on it for weeks until his doctors noticed there was a problem.

He was then diagnosed with having a tumour on his spinal cord that had caused him to lose the feeling in his legs. The tumour was successfully removed, however the cast was placed too tightly on his foot and caused serious tissue damage.

After six years of several surgery attempts he had his left leg amputated below the knee. The amputation turned Colin’s attention back to the bike, “I tried cycling before I lost my leg and have always loved riding a bike,” he explained in an interview. He bought a bike and got back out on the road. That was eight years ago.

Since then he has won two silver medals at the World Championships as well as enjoying several World Cup victories.

This though tops previous achievements. A delighted Lynch said: “It’s something that I have worked at for four years. It’s an absolute dream to finally achieve the one thing that I didn’t have in the closet and that was a Paralympic medal.

“After London I had to do a lot of soul searching. I had to ask myself if I was capable of performing at the highest level still. After making some changes, just reassessing everything I was doing, I was able to come back. Since then I have been winning medals, specifically in the Time Trial, at international level. I knew this was something that I was capable of doing.

“I changed everything, new coaches, new equipment; I got a new cycling leg made for Rio with the help of a lot of people back home. Really just focusing on aerodynamics, training regimes and just making sure that I arrive at the start line in the best possible condition.”

While the bike is an expensive purchase, there is one other ‘piece of equipment’ that is absolutely pivotal to his chances. He explained: “The (prosthetic) leg, for me, is the most important piece of equipment. An ill-fitting leg is as bad as an ill-fitting pair of shoes.

“We spent a lot of time with the designers of the leg back home in wind tunnel testing to try and decide what the best design was and then I have done a lot of personal aero testing to refine my position on the bike. (Then) there is the bike itself, the wheels and tyres and the choice of skin-suit. Every last little detail was looked at to try and squeeze those last seconds out.”

A gold medal was his target but silver is a reasonable compromise. “To be honest I came here with the express desire to win the gold medal. I raced against the Canadian earlier in the year and it was really, really close. On the day he was the better rider.”

Friday will see Lynch hit the road again, this time in the C1-3 Road race but his goal on that occasion will be to ride for teammate Eoghan Clifford. “My teammate Eoghan Clifford is one of the favouites for the race.

“As it’s a mixed category race and I am in one of the lower categories it is going to be very difficult to finish with the leaders so I will do anything I can to help him; make sure he stays up at the front, give him a wheel if anything bad happens for him. I am going out to enjoy it. I have no aspirations of winning a medal.”

But for now all that glitters is silver in Pontal. Lynch concluded: “This medal is for everyone in Ireland who supports us. I have had a lot of support from people in Ireland the ones I know and the ones I don’t.”

Meanwhile in canoeing, Ireland’s Patrick O’Leary finished third in his heat of the Men’s KL3 in 45.97 seconds and that is good enough for him to qualify for the semifinals later today (2.50pm, Irish time).

Kildare’s Sean Baldwin managed 29th place in his final event in the shooting, the R6 50m Rifle Prone while Westmeath’s Declan Slevin was 11th in the final of the H3 Handcycling road race.

Ireland’s Ciara Staunton finished 11th in the Women’s H2-3 handcycling time trial. The 30-year-old former wheelchair rugby international, competing in her first Paralympics, was up against a field, the majority of whom were more physically capable.