Paralympics Ireland

4 | Paralympics Ireland Annual Report | 2019 The standout result at the World Track Championships came from Ronan Grimes who delivered a brilliant silver medal in the MC4 Scratch race to claim the bronze medal in the event. Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal missed out on a medal by just .067 seconds in the 3kn Individual race. Katie George and Eve then went on to further improve on that performance when they competed at the World Road Championships continuing their incredible record by becoming double world championship medallists for the third year in a row. The tandem cycling pair claimed gold as they held off the New Zealand pairing to win the time trial event for the third time in succession. More was to follow as they added silver to their haul missing out on gold by the tiniest of margins. Congratulations to Katie George and Eve who are consistently amongst the very best in the world and are a great example to all other athletes of what is possible. Powerlifter, Britney Arendse, maintained her steady progress in 2019 as she broke her own Junior World Record in the 73kg category by lifting a brilliant 100kg to break her own record by 2kg. That lift was enough to win a bronze medal in the Hungarian World Cup and lift her world ranking up to 8 th in the world. Arendse also received a further boost in July when she received the news that she had been upgraded to the bronze medal position from her Asia Oceania championship following the suspension of one of her competitors. Pat O'Leary enjoyed a superb World Championships in the Va'a competition as he clinched a 5 th place finish at the World Championships in Szeged, Hungary. He had clinched his position in the final by winning his semi final with a great time of 49:38. This performance was made all the better as it was enough to clinch a para canoe slot for Ireland at the Paralympic Games. Para Table Tennis star, Colin Judge returned to the podium in June as he claimed medals on the double in Poland. The Dubliner showed real grit throughout the season as he really came to grips with his new classification and that work really paid off when he finished third at the Para Polish Open, this also included a brilliant win over Merrien, the World number 4 from France. Judge replicated his form in the doubles competition by also claiming a third place finish in the teams competition with his team mate, Shmuel Ben Asor from Israel. Tojo Lazarri had the most eye-catching result for Triathlon Ireland as he claimed the overall victory in the Duathlon World Championships in Spain. Tojo produced an excellent performance to become the World Champion only a month after winning the national championships. Donnacha McCarthy and Leo Hynes also tasted podium success at those world championships on a memorable week of competition for Irish triathletes. Classification The National Classification Policy & Standards have been implemented in 20 sports. In 2019, 21 national classification days were offered with 74 athletes being evaluated. There were 14 international classification opportunities with 33 Irish athletes classified. The national classification system has been 98% reliable in 2019. Triathlete Donnacha McGrath pictured with his guide, Brian MCCrystal Jason Smyth races to gold at the World Championships

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