Czech Paralympic Committee hosts Open European Cycling Championships

This week 350 athletes from nearly 40 countries as far afield as Japan and Canada have come together in the Czech Republic. The Czech Paralympic Committee is hosting the Open European Cycling Championships for athletes with disabilities, one of the most significant cycling events to be hosted by the Czech Republic since the fall of communism. David Vaughan brings the following report.

Czech Paralympic Committee hosts Open European Cycling Championships

A Spanish cyclist goes round the track at Prague's open-air velodrome at high speed. Although he is a double amputee, with one arm and one leg, his speed would be the envy of many an able-bodied athlete. The European Cycling Championship is a major event on the path to the Paralympics next year in Sydney, and it's rather apt that the event is taking place here in the Czech Republic. This year is the 55th anniversary of this country's first major disabled sports event, and the founder of the Czech Association for Disabled Athletes, 84-year-old Vojmir Srdecny has been giving the medals at this week's championships.

Vojmir Srdecny

With tears in his eyes he told me that he felt this week's championship to be lifetime's dream come true. Under communism, disabled sport was not completely neglected, but there were huge problems for athletes wanting to travel, and it took nearly fifteen years for the Association of Disabled Athletes to be acknowledged by the regime at all. The sponsorship and media attention that this week's championships have attracted are proof of Vojmir Srdecny's lifetime achievement.

I turned up just as the finals of the men's one kilometer tandem time trial were under way. Each team has two athletes on a tandem - one visually impaired and the other with full sight - and the different national teams compete against the clock. Gold medalists were Dan Gordon and Richard Story from Great Britain:

Dan Gordon: "It's fantastic, we actually won the sprint yesterday as well, but this really meant something. Certainly with that time as well. It was less than a second off the world record which was set indoors."

And how did you feel?

Richard Story: "Perfect. Everything went well - the way we were riding, how we had the plan to ride the kilometer, it just all went perfectly."

And tell me, how do you work together?

Dan Gordon: "There's a story there. We've actually only been riding together since March this year. I think that's only the fifteenth time we've been on the bike together, so it's all come together really quickly. I have to have a lot of trust in what Richard does."

Dan Gordon and Richard Story, gold medalists

Richard Story: "Dan knows and I know at which point we're cruising and when we accelerate, and it just works really well. He's able to pick up on myself accelerating and I'm able to pick up when he's accelerating as well, so it's just perfect."

And so, do you think that worldwide an event like this is beginning to be taken seriously and to attract attention?

Dan Gordon: "I think so, and I think that with the Paralympic Games coming up next year, that's going to really set the score, it's going to be on an international level, huge media coverage and it can only push disabled sport further forward."

And will you be there?

Dan Gordon: "Oh yes" [laughs].

Both of you?

Richard Story: "Yes. This is quite an important event for us in terms of selection. To win two golds - that's our place next year, so we'll be riding to hopefully win a few more medals next year."