Gordon and former Sundrive rider, Byrne finish fifth in Tokyo

IRELAND’S Martin Gordon combined with his pilot Eamonn Byrne, a former rider with Sundrive Track Team in Crumlin, to finish fifth in the Men’s B 1000m Time Trial at the Tokyo Paralympics this morning.

The two performed superbly on their tandem bike in the Izu Velodrome, completing their four laps in a new personal best time of 1:01.545 to overtake Spain’s Adolfo Bellido Guerrero and his pilot Eloy Teruel Rovira into first place.

Yet they were steadily nudged down the leader board as each of the next four pairings posted slightly faster times.

In the end, it was the partnership of Great Britain’s Neil Fachie and his pilot Matthew Rotherham who took gold in a new world record time of 58.038, edging out their compatriots James Ball and Lewis Stewart into second place with France’s Raphael Beaugillet and Francois Pervis taking bronze.

For Gordon and Byrne, who were just over a second off a podium spot, it was another very impressive display on the international stage and one that followed their success at the 2018 UCI Track World Cup event in London when they won silver in the 200m sprint event and carded a new national record in the process.

Meanwhile, there was medal success for Ireland at the Izu Velodrome after Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal captured silver in the B 3000m Individual Pursuit.

The pair set a new World record of 3:19.946 in the qualifiers that was surpassed moments later by Britain’s Lora Fachie and Corinne Hall, to whom the Irish pair later finished second in the gold-medal race.