SCOTTISH cyclist Aileen McGlynn won a gold medal and set a world record in the Paralympics in Beijing yesterday, helping to push the British team into first place in the medal table on day one.
Paisley-born McGlynn, who is registered blind, and her pilot rider Ellen Hunter, blew the field away after completing the women's one-kilometre time-trial in 1 min 9.066 secs.
McGlynn, 35, and Wales-based Hunter, 40, were ecstatic after their tr
iumph.
"We're absolutely delighted to have broken the world record and the Paralympic record," said McGlynn. "It was a hard ride but we knew we had it in us to do the time."
The duo, who broke the world record in the 200m and won a gold medal in Athens four years ago, were expected to deliver, but felt the pressure of being favourites.
"You just have to put the training in and have confidence in the training you do all year long and it's all going to work out on the day," added McGlynn.
"We knew we had it in the bank to do a good time."
Success has not been straight forward for McGlynn and Hunter, who have to juggle their lives in Wrexham and Glasgow to train for major events.
They train separately most of the time, but got together every other week in preparation for the Paralympics.
McGlynn has been partially sighted since birth and first joined a cycling team at 14 but was reluctant to tell team-mates about her disability.
She did a maths degree and became a trainee actuary before taking up cycling competitively in her late 20s. She quickly impressed the coaches at Johnstone Wheelers and has since become a professional athlete, winning two medals at the Paralympics in 2004 and a string of golds at three successive Paralympic World Cups and European Championships since then.
She was awarded an MBE in the 2006 New Year's honours for her services to disabled sport.
Hunter broke her back in 2003 and was told she would never cycle again, seemingly putting an end to the pair's Paralympic Games hopes. However she made an amazing recovery to enable the pair to compete in Athens.
Sports minister Stewart Maxwell today pay tribute to McGlynn. "Glasgow and the whole of Scotland are proud of Aileen after her gold medal success in Beijing," said Mr Maxwell. "It is a fantastic start and hopefully the first of many medals for Scotland's athletes competing in the GB team."
Mr Maxwell also congratulated Scottish swimmer James Anderson on winning Scotland's first silver. He said: "Well done to James Anderson for bagging his swimming silver in the 200m freestyle, his 14th Paralympic medal in a brilliant career."
Anderson, who won four titles in Athens, finished second to Russia's Dmitry Kokarev, who lowered the Scot's world record to 4mins 45.43secs.
McGlynn and Hunter were not the only British successes in the velodrome, where at the Olympic Games seven of 10 track gold medals were won by Brits.
Simon Richardson and Darren Kenny won golds.
Sascha Kindred took inspiration from the cyclists' performances to win gold – his fifth Paralympic title – at the Water Cube. Three further medals, including Anderson's, were won in the pool to take Britain's total to seven, while the US won nine medals including four golds.
The full article contains 566 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
