Glasgow Paralympian star pleads for sprint chance

GLASGOW cyclist Aileen McGlynn has asked for the sprint to be included at the Beijing Paralympics after landing gold at the Visa World Cup.

The 33-year-old and Welsh lead Ellen Hunter topped the podium in the tandem sprint in Manchester - but will not get the chance in the Far East after organisers scrapped the race.

McGlynn - second in the sprint at the Athens Games in 2004 - said: "It's really disappointing they're leaving out the sprint as we're better now than we were in Athens.

"It puts our position in jeopardy now as we are actually fighting to go. Even though we're world, European and Olympic champions, we still might not get to Beijing.

"We're tactically better now than we were in Athens and since then we haven't really been beaten, so we felt we could have got two gold medals."

McGlynn and Hunter - the Paralympic champs in the 1km time trial - clinched gold by beating Aussies Felicity Johnson and Katie Parker 2-0 in the best-of-three final,- the quickest victory coming in 12.156secs.

The Brits also tried to break the world record in the 1km time trial but missed out by 0.5secs.

"Not breaking the world record was disappointing - but the timing was poor," added McGlynn.

"Having two sprint matches before and dope control stopping us going to the toilet didn't help.

"Whoever organise these things don't seem to see sense at times."

Visa was the first sponsor of the Paralympic Games and their support will continue through to the London 2012 Games as Visa help bring Paralympic sport to a global audience.

Source: Evening Times 14 May 2007