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Katie-George Dunlevy has claimed her third Paralympic medal of these Games with a silver in the women’s B road race at Clichy-sous-Bois on Friday afternoon.
It is Dunlevy’s eighth Paralympic medal across three Games, but there will be disappointment the colour was not gold after the Irish tandem pairing of Dunlevy and pilot Linda Kelly led for nearly all of the 99.4km race in the suburbs of Paris, only to be overtaken in the final 400 metres.
They could not shake off Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl at any stage, with the British pair only making a move with the finish line in sight to win by three seconds, 2:37.26 to Dunlevy and Kelly’s 2:37.29
It has been a week of incredible battles between the Irish and British crews – Dunlevy and Kelly beat Unwin and Holl in the road time trial at the same venue on Wednesday, while the British pair got the better of Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal in the final of the B 3,000m individual pursuit at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Vélodrome last Sunday.
Dunlevy and McCrystal won the road race in Tokyo three years ago, but the gold went to Britain on this occasion.
Unwin and Holl tucked in behind the Irish team and remained there essentially for all of the race apart from the last few hundred metres. With Dunlevy and McCrystal forced to do all of the hard graft for over two and a half hours, Unwin and Holl had the extra leg strength coming down the final stretch.
It is Ireland’s sixth Paralympic medal from Paris.
Also competing in the event for Team Ireland was Josephine Healion and McCrystal, who had been in the mix for third early on before falling back, ultimately finishing fourth in a time of 2:42.05.
In the men’s B road race, Damien Vereker and pilot Mitchell McLaughlin finished eighth, covering the 127.8km course in 3:04.18.
Gold and silver went to the Dutch pairings of Tristan Bangma and Patrick Bos, and Vincent ter Schure and Timo Fransen, while France’s Alexandre Lloveras and Yoann Paillot earned bronze.
English