Gallery: Canadian breaks world record at her first paracycling track world championships

Photos from day one at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre

Lily Hansen-Gillis January 31, 2020

On Jan. 30, the 2020 UCI paracycling track world championships kicked off in Milton, On. Canadian cyclist Kate O’Brien started off her first Para-cycling Track world championships with a bang, breaking a world record in the C4 category 500-m time trial with a time of 35.223 seconds. The 31-year-old, who raced at the 2016 Rio Olympics, experienced a serious crash on the track in 2017. After two years of rehabilitation O’Brien has returned this season and is competing with the Canadian para-cycling track team. “The world record was certainly a surprise,” she said. “It was really, really fun and amazing to be back competing. I’m looking forward to what’s to come.”

Teammate Ross Wilson was impressed with O’Brien’s accomplishment, “Kate has been a great addition to the team and has punched her ticket to Tokyo with this performance,” said Wilson. “I’m excited to cheer her as Canada’s first athlete to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics as a classified athlete!”

In the men’s C1 pursuit, Wilson finished sixth in qualifier. “I made a technical error going into corner 1,” he said, “I’ll be doing a lot of repetitions on opening laps to get ready for Tokyo.” In the men’s C2 pursuit Tristan Chernove raced 3:4o, a new Canadian
record, finishing fifth in the qualifier.