Mcglynn and Haston get back on the bike for a tilt at Gold Coast glory
After the exertions of winning two silver medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Aileen Mcglynn decided the best way to wind down was to get back on a bike and cycle from one end of Britain to the other.
The paralympic tandem cyclist and her pilot Louise Haston had come second in the sprint and then repeated the feat in the kilo but while they both pondered whether to go on and have another tilt at a medal in Gold Coast this year, they found they couldn’t keep away from their bikes.
“I was meant to be finishing after Glasgow but that lasted about a week,” said Haston. “I got back on my bike and my husband was like ‘so much for that’.”
“I got back on the bike as well,” smiles Mcglynn. “I had a sort of break from doing the intensive training but I went on the road and did a Land’s End to John o’ Groats!
“It was something I had always thought about doing but the women’s network that I am involved with down in Manchester were doing it and I just tagged on at the end. It all went fairly well, you know.
“It was nice when I got back into Scotland and got recognised a bit. I got my photo taken with people when I was stopping off in cafes, that was nice. It worked out at about 880 miles in total, which was about 50-80 miles a day. We did it over about 14 days.
“Then I came back when it was announced that there were going to be tandem events [at the 2018 Commonwealth Games].”
Having experimented with different pairings, the duo are back together and, having been named in the Scotland team, are now training together three times a week as they prepare for another shot at the podium in April.
“Glasgow was great,” says Haston. “It still gives me goosebumps thinking about that atmosphere.” But Mcglynn knows that this is a fresh challenge. “There is an English pairing who are Rio gold medallists, they also won gold in Glasgow and there are always one or two Australian pairings.”
But win or lose, they insist this will be their last shot, although what happens next is up in the air.
“I always fancied boxing. But my husband is like ‘no’,” said Haston. “He just wants to be a normal family. But I have done sport all my life and it is easy to come out and say you are going to stop, not so easy to actually do it.”