Paralympic cycling squad are ready for the off.
25/08/2008
The Irish Paralympic Cycling Squad joined the rest of the Irish Team at Dublin Airport yesterday Sunday 24th August to fly out to Beijing for the Paralympic Games.
The Cycling Squad made up of Male & Female Tandem pairing of Catherine Walsh and Pilot Joanna Hickey and the tandem pairing of Michael Delaney and Pilot David Peelo who compete in the Blind & Visually Impaired category. Cathal Miller competes on a single bike in the LC1 9arm Amputee Category and Enda Smyth competes in the single bike Cerebral Palsy CP4 Category.
Accompanying the team will be Cycling Manager, Denis Toomey; Paralympic Coach, Brian Nugent and Team Mechanic, Gerry Beggs.
Speaking in advance of their departure Denis Toomey said “ All the hard work has now been done and the squad are all in high spirits. Personal Best performances will at a minimum result in Irish Records and we are confidant of achieving this. Anything beyond will be a bonus but in cycling you never know.”
The team have prepared well thanks to the support of The Irish Sports Council, Paralympic Council of Ireland, Cycling Ireland, NCTC, An Post and many more and are looking forward to an exciting and successful games.
The first week is spent in the team holding camp in Beijing before moving into the Paralympic Village on September 1st. While in the holding camp the team have secured access to the Chinese Paralympic Training Velodrome. Once in the village the team will be able to train in the Olympic Velodrome where the competition takes place. The Opening Ceremony takes place on September 6th and the track competition start on September 7th.
You can follow the progress of the whole Irish Team on www.pcireland.ie RTE will provide coverage every second night from the 6th September and BBC will also provide coverage.
The photograph shows the Irish Paralympic Cycling Team along with Irish Chef De Mission taken at the final training camp in Limerick last weekend.
(Left to Right) David Peelo, Cathal Miller, Enda Smyth, Catherine Walsh, Michael Delaney, Jimmy Byrne (Irish Chef De Mission) Brian Nugent, Joanna Hickey, Gerry Beggs and Denis Toomey.
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