After winning his first Gold in the Pursuit on day 2, Mark Colbourne followed that up with yet another medal in the Kilometre.
Christina Kelkel writes …. Today saw Mark racing in the 1km Time Trial and as a track debutant, Mark had to go off as one of the first riders with ten more riders to come after his heat.
Related Link: Gold for Colbourne in Pursuit
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Motivated by yesterday’s success, Mark rode a very controlled and fast kilometre finishing in a time of 1:19.380, only 1.163 seconds off the current WR time and good enough to take the lead at that point. However, the race still was not over and Mark had to watch his competitors trying to beat his time whilst warming down in track centre.
Photo: Christina Kelkel
With only the defending Champion and WR holder Rodrigo Fernand Lopez (ARG) to go, Mark was still in the lead and guaranteed a Silver medal. Lopez started his time trial almost a second faster than Mark in lap one, but as he continued his race, Lopez’s lead started to decrease more and more. In the end, he crossed the line in a time of 1:19.102, only .278 ahead of Mark who had to settle for Silver.
After the race Mark said “I felt very confident and mentally ready after the Gold medal win yesterday, even though my legs felt slightly heavy when I was warming up. This only was my second kilo in four months so I am really happy to be quite close to the WR, especially as I rode a 5 second PB. I got into a nice rhythm straight from the start but after 2 tough rides yesterday, my legs tightened up in the last lap.â€
Photo:Â Christina Kelkel
After the Para-Cycling Track World Championships, Mark will now focus on his preparations for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Mark said “We have learnt a lot from these World Championships and will now work on the bits we need to improve for London. We will be doing a lot of work on the road in the build up to the Games as the Road Time Trial is one of my main targets as well as the 3km Pursuit and the Kilo.â€
JAC Sport
