World bronze for Josephine Healion

Offaly cyclist Josephine Healion took bronze at the Para-Cycling Road World Championships in Baie-Comeau, Canada on Sunday.

Healion, from Cappincur, and her pilot Linda Kelly were competing in the women's tandem road race and finished in third place with fellow Irish competitors Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal taking gold.

It was only the second time for Healion, who is visually impaired, and Kelly, to compete internationally, having made their debut the previous weekend in the Paracycling UCI World Cup in Quebec, where they took silver in both the women’s tandem time-trial and road race.

In contrast, Dunlevy and McCrystal claimed their 6th World Championship title on Sunday. The double Paralympic gold medallists launched an attack on the climb, with one and a half laps to go, and were strong enough to hold their lead to the line.

The pair come away from a successful championship campaign with a silver in the time trial and gold in the road race.

However, Healion and Kelly have more than proved themselves as worthy contenders at this level. After the disappointment of suffering a major mechanical in the time trial on Friday which delayed them by close to 10 minutes and saw them finish in seventh position, the pair left it all out on the road on Sunday and were awarded with a well-deserved bronze medal. In the end it came down to a sprint between Ireland and Poland for the bronze medal. Just 15 metres from the finish line the timing chain came off on the Irish bike, but Healion and Kelly had done enough to see them cross the finish line just ahead of Poland.