Katie-George Dunlevy has achieved her third medal at these Paralympic Games, a silver, in the B classification women’s road race that took place in Clichy-sous-Bois on a Friday afternoon. This brings Dunlevy’s total Paralympic medal count to eight across three Games. Despite this accomplishment, there could be a slight sense of unfulfilment as Dunlevy and her partner, Linda Kelly, were leading the 99.4km race, which took place in Paris’s outskirts, until being surpassed in the last 400 metres.
They were unable to get a considerable lead over the British duo, Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl. The latter pair only moved ahead when the finish line was almost in sight, securing a win by a narrow three seconds. Their time was 2:37.26 compared to Dunlevy and Kelly’s 2:37.29.
The week was marked by several significant contests between the teams from Ireland and Britain. Dunlevy and Kelly previously outperformed Unwin and Holl in the road time trial at the same location on Wednesday, although Unwin and Holl had defeated Dunlevy and her teammate, Eve McCrystal, in the B 3,000m individual pursuit finale at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Vélodrome the previous Sunday. The British duo ended in the gold position this time, a title won by Dunlevy and McCrystal three years ago in Tokyo.
The British team followed closely behind the Irish competitors for the entirety of the race, only pulling ahead in the final few hundred metres. Dunlevy and McCrystal, having staved off the competition for over two and a half hours, were outperformed in the last stretch as Unwin and Holl maintained better leg strength.
This achievement makes it the sixth medal won by Ireland in the Paris Paralympic Games.
The Irish team included Josephine Healion and McCrystal, who were initially in the running for third place but ended up concluding in fourth with a time of 2:42.05.
In the men’s B road race, Irish pair Damien Vereker and Mitchell McLaughlin secured an eighth-place finish, completing the 127.8km circuit in 3:04.18. The Dutch duos, Tristan Bangma and Patrick Bos, and Vincent ter Schure and Timo Fransen, won gold and silver, while bronze was taken by French athletes Alexandre Lloveras and Yoann Paillot.