The team also set seven personal bests and two British records while the highlight came in the C3 individual pursuit where Britain dominated to claim all three podium spots.

Rik Waddon posted a strong time in his qualifying ride but it was his less experienced team mate Shaun McKeown that was to face Paralympic champion Darren Kenny (pictured) in a gold ride off.

In the finals Kenny proved too strong for his compatriot as he stormed to gold.

McKeown picked up the silver medal while Waddon took home the bronze.


Britain also reigned supreme in men's tandem kilo as Neil Fachie and pilot Craig Maclean took gold and Anthony Kappes and pilot Barney Storey took silver.

Beijing 2008 Paralympic gold medallists Kappes and Storey set an impressive time of 1min 02.681sec half way through the race for other riders to match but Fachie and Maclean, competing together for the first time, rose to the challenge and took 0.022 of that time in the final tandem ride of the day to secure victory.

In the C4 individual pursuit Jody Cundy made a strong World Championship debut by winning silver and setting a British record.

Cundy only just missed out on gold old Kilo rival Jiri Jezek of the Czech Republic but admitted he was happy with the result.

"It is a good result for my first pursuit, but there is certainly room for more and we are going to work on this for London," he said.

"It is nice to win a silver, but I am always going for gold."

Despite a brilliant ride with new pilot Helen Scott, Aileen McGlynn had to hand her world champion's crown to Australia's Felicity Johnson, piloted by Stephanie Morton, who beat the British pair by less than a tenth of a second.

The new British pairing walked away with silver and a personal best of 1:09.474, a shade of the current world record.

Lora Turnham, piloted by Fiona Duncan, came sixth after a solid ride while in the C5 Individual Pursuit, Jon-Allan Butterworth produced the ride of his life setting a new British Record, which placed him sixth in a highly competitive international field.

Ireland also put in a strong performance on the opening day of the Championships despite not winning any medals with Catherine Walsh and Fran Meehan setting a Irish record in the female tandem one kilometre individual time trial with a time of 1:13.520 which left them in ninth place overall.

Michael Delaney and Con Collis also set a new Irish record in the male tandem 1km individual time trial with a time of 1:05.522 to finish seventh.

Irish Team Manager, Denis Toomey, said: "Great result for the girls with new Irish record to boot."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]

Pictures courtesy of British Cycling


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