Paralympics: Cyclist Telmo Pinão wins Portugal’s first diploma | Paralympic Games

Cyclist Telmo Pinão secured Portugal’s first Paralympic title on Friday. Paris 2024She finished seventh in the 3,000m individual pursuit C2 race at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome.

In a race where Paralympic records were broken twice and France’s Alexandre Lotte set a new world record (3.24,298 minutes), Telmo Pinão, who is missing part of his left leg, finished seventh in 3.59,150 minutes.

Telmo Pinang was pleased with the result, but admitted he may have been unable to achieve a better result due to “exaggerated parts at the start of the race”.

“I had a really good start, and I think I overdid it a little bit on the third lap. When I say overdid it a little bit, I mean I was a second faster, and then I tried to relax a little bit. I felt like I was flowing towards the middle of the race, but I probably overdid it at the beginning and didn’t feel good in the last few laps,” he explained.

Telmo Pinang, who is competing in his third Paralympic Games at the age of 44, admits that “without the hype” he would have achieved “his second goal after the diploma, which is to break his personal record”. The top two finishers in the event will compete for gold, while the next two will compete for bronze.

The Portuguese cyclist compared the race to this: Surfing: “We slow down on straights, and pedal on curves. It’s like trying to catch a wave, like trying to Surfing“.

Telmo Pinang has once again lamented that the race is “unfair” for bringing together both two-legged and one-legged riders, and admitted that the current classification system, which has come under criticism, is “pushing some good cyclists away from the race.”

The event took place in a velodrome for cyclists. Yuri Leitao and Rui Oliveira The Paralympic athlete, who won gold at the Olympics, admitted that he received a message from Iúri Leitão before going to the competition.

“During the warm-up, I was on a video call with Iuri and showed him where I was. He was cussing me out and telling me to come here and blow it all up with one leg,” said Telmo Pinang after finishing in seventh place.

Pinang, who is missing part of his left leg, found “competing on the track a joy” at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, where Youri Leitang and Rui Oliveira “made history” by winning Olympic gold.

“I can say that what I have done, what I have developed in my career, I have made history here. I can say that with everything I have trained for, everything I have given up, especially with my family and friends,” he said.

The Coimbra-born cyclist will compete in three more events at the 2024 Paris Olympics, one track event and two road events.