Martin Gordon and Eoin Mullen, his co-pilot, established a new record for Ireland of 1:01.158 during the qualifications of the men’s B 1,000m time-trial at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome at the Paralympic Games on Sunday. Despite their endeavour, a podium finish remained elusive as they secured the fifth position in the final, replicating Gordon’s previous result in Tokyo. This record-breaking achievement unfolded during the morning session, where they clocked the fifth fastest time among the six finalists, setting an unprecedented Irish record in the process. The prior record of 1:01.545 had been previously held by Gordon and his co-pilot, Eamonn Byrne, from the 2021 Tokyo Games. The duo couldn’t supersede their morning timing in the Sunday afternoon final, clocking a nonetheless impressive 1:01.520 – which would have set a national record itself had it not been for their earlier sprint. They had experienced an unfortunate fall on Monday but demonstrated commendable resilience to compete at the velodrome. Expressing his relief, Gordon said, “A nasty accident involving another team’s tandem right in front of us brought us down. It was unavoidable. However, considering our state on Monday, I couldn’t be more pleased with our record-breaking performance today. The fact that we were just three tenths of a second slower after only 2½ hours break further underscores our efforts.”
Day four of the Games saw the focus primarily on the velodrome with the Irish contingence participating, along with some engagement in rowing. In the PR2 Mixed Double Sculls B Final, Katie O’Brien and Tiarnán O’Donnell represented Ireland. They succeeded in securing second place, trailing the Netherlands and leading over Turkey, who came third. Although Ukraine bagged gold, with Poland and Great Britain following in the A Final, Team Ireland concluded at an overall eighth position.
Following the competition, O’Brien expressed contentment with their performance, acknowledging it wasn’t the ideal podium finish but emphasised various promising aspects. As for O’Donnell, reflecting on the whole experience, he confessed it was impactful and somewhat overwhelming. He expressed eagerness for the coming days of being Paralympians and anticipates watching other sports whilst also planning for their future endeavours.