McGlynn finds golden touch in Beijing to retain title

Scotland’s Aileen McGlynn stormed to Paralympic gold to keep the Saltire flying high and proud at the Laoshan velodrome.

The visually impaired 35-year-old and pilot Ellen Hunter retained their women’s 1km time trial title yesterday and rewrote the world record in the process.

But McGlynn has already focused her attention on another medal when she competes in the tandem pursuit later this week.

“I’m delighted – especially to have broken the world record,” she said.

“It was a hard ride, but we knew we had it in us to record a really good time and it all came together when it mattered.

“The training we’ve done gave me confidence that it would work out, but we are not finished yet. We’ve been working really hard on the pursuit and we’d be disappointed if we didn’t match this result then.”

McGlynn is quick to point out Britain’s Paralympic cyclists have been enjoying the sort of success recently experienced by their Olympic counterparts for several years.

But she paid tribute to Chris Hoy, whose forceful influence it seems is still helping win medals in Beijing.

“It was watching Chris at the 2002 Commonwealth Games that inspired me to pick up the phone and find out about opportunities for disabled cyclists,” she added.

“I enjoyed road cycling, but I hadn’t really seen track cycling until then and it was something I wanted to do.

“I made a call and the timing was just right. I got the opportunity to go down to Manchester and that was it – a few weeks later I was on the team.”

McGlynn was one of three British cyclists to triumph at the velodrome yesterday.

Darren Kelly retained his pursuit title and Simon Richardson shocked himself and his rivals by winning the men’s 1km time trial.

Richardson was a successful club cyclist before he was hit by a car while out training in 2001. He only returned to the sport three years ago, after his doctor told him he would lose his leg if he didn’t to do some exercise.