Jody just got in touch with us following his successful Paralympic World Cup. As always we're sharing it with you, as always it's well worth the read:
Hi Guys,
I saw you put a few bits up on the site about the world cup, but thought I'd let you know how it went from inside the track centre!
First race up was the 1km TT, an event I've won for the past 2 years at the world cup and more importantly one of the events I won in Beijing. Just like last year it was to be a combined classification race, so I'd be up against the best from my classification (LC2) but also the best from the (LC1 and CP4) categories, and they really were the best, both paralympic champions from those respective classes were here.
For a bit of a change we had 2 people on the track at the same time, like the pursuit. So I was in heat 5 of 7 against the silver medallist in my class, Jiri Jezek. I got out of the gate nice and smoothly and opened up a 2 second gap on Jiri by the end of lap 1, although faster than Jiri I was 0.7 down on my Beijing split, crossing the line for a 2nd time I could see Jiri which was a great feeling as helped me push myself for the final two laps.
The air in the track felt really dry and I struggled to breathe on the last 2 laps, however I was quicker in the 2nd half than I was in Beijing and finished in a very respectable 1:06.030, my 2nd fastest kilo and only 0.564 outside my WR, which was set in much faster conditions in Beijing.
Now I was a spectator for the final 2 heats, heat 6 saw CP4 paralympic champion Ishii Masashi, break his classification WR setting a time 1:08.575, so he moved into 2nd place with just one heat to go. In this heat the LC1 paralympic champion Mark Bristow (Eric's cousin!) got off to a flying start, and held onto that pace to set a new LC1 WR of 1:08.757 and was good enough for the bronze. The same podium as last year's world cup event.
The second day of racing was a busy one for myself, as I was to contest the team sprint and make a WR attempt on the flying 200.
First up the Team Sprint, an event that we're Paralympic champions and WR holders, we were keeping the order the same as Beijing with Darren Kenny off first, myself second and Mark Bristow third.
With our major competitors not here for the team sprint it was left to Beijing's bronze medallists the Czech republic to set the bench mark time of 53.523. We were the final team to go and set a great time of 50.035, a time that would of still won us gold in Beijing, but 0.7 outside our best. So it would be GBR against the Czech Republic in the final.
Before the final I took to the track to attempt a WR in the flying 200m, a record I held at 11.458. My target going into it was to break 11 seconds, a pretty decent benchmark for any able-bodied athlete. I made a smooth wind up using the track to generate speed before hearing the bell and launching from the top of the track to the black line as fast as possible. Crossing the line I'd giving it everything I had and recorded a time of 10.998, a new WR, and inside that magical 11seconds.
A quick skinsuit change, back into the green and rainbow stripes for the team sprint final. This time we weren't as quick, but still fast enough to hold a 3 second advantage over the Czechs.
So I have to say pretty successful world cup, and as Gordan Ramsey would say, 2 Golds - 1 WR - Paralympic World Cup - Done!
Catch you all soon
Jody
