MOLNAR FIFTH IN FIRST DAY OF PARALYMPIC CYCLING COMPETITION
(Rio, BRA – September 8, 2016) The first day of Paralympic cycling competition on Thursday, in Rio de Janeiro, had Canadians competing in three events, with Marie-Claude Molnar of Lemoyne, Quebec, the highest placed finisher, in fifth place for the Women’s C4 Individual Pursuit.
Molnar raced the qualifying round against world record holder and eventual gold medal winner Shawn Morelli of the United States. Molnar’s time of four minutes and 8.452 seconds for 3000 metres put her in fifth place, just outside the top-4 required to move on to the medal round. However, Molnar was pleased with her time.
“That’s really what I wanted – to ride with the world champion, Shawn Morelli. She is really better then everyone and that gave me a lot of motivation for the race. To achieve a race time of 4 minutes and 8 seconds was a goal that we set ourselves, and that is now reached. I really did what I had to do; I kept to the original plan and I kept my lap times constant, so I’m really happy.”
In the 3000 metre Women’s C5 Individual Pursuit, Nicole Clermont of Laval, Quebec, finished ninth in qualifying with a time of four minutes and 8.557 seconds, and did not move on to the medal round. Sarah Storey of Great Britain won the gold medal with a world record time of three minutes and 31.394 seconds.
“I was aiming for 4:06 but I did 4:08,” said Clermont. “I started a little bit too fast; one second too fast on my first lap. Since I do not do a lot of track racing, it is difficult for me to understand what is the correct pace for a 19.5 second lap. So I did not have a lot of latitude, and that first lap killed me. But I made it: I am 55 years old, I did a race on the track at the Paralympics Games in Rio!”
“It was really important for me today to share with the students at the school where I work. My adventure here is really important, but I want to be a role model . If I can share as much as I can with the students, it is mission accomplished for me. It is not easy to be a student, it is difficult some times, but I think I am good example of perseverance and when we push our limits, it’s the best example we can give. I am the happiest school director in the world!”
The third event Canada competed in on Thursday was the Men’s 4000 metre Tandem Pursuit, with the team of Daniel Chalifour (Ste-Therese, Quebec) and his pilot Jean-Michel Lachance (Quebec City, Quebec) finishing ninth in qualifying, in a time of four minutes and 24.129 seconds. Chalifour and Lachance did not advance to the medal round, with Great Britain’s Steve Bate and his pilot Adam Duggleby winning the gold medal after setting a world record time of four minutes and 8.146 seconds in qualifying.
“It was extremely fast,” commented Chalifour. “Being in the seventh heat, we had a very good idea of the time it would take to reach the medal round. We started strong and maintained the lap time needed to be in the medal round at the beginning but, unfortunately, it was a little too fast for us to maintain during 4000 metres. If we would have started a little bit slower, we probably could have made four minutes and 17 seconds, but we knew it would not be enough to qualify for the medal round, so we gave it our all at the start. We cannot be disappointed to have tried to be in the medal round. At the end, six teams did four minutes and 14 seconds or less. I have never seen that in our category.”
Pilot Jean-Michel Lachance added, “It’s a big disappointment. We put all our energies to the Pursuit. We have not delivered what we wanted to deliver. For the road events coming up, the pressure will be less important. We can play on the tactical side to stand out.”
