OUR ATHLETES IN TOKYO PREPARING FOR PARALYMPICS
CYCLIST Martin Gordon was putting in final preparations last weekend as he prepared to represent Ireland at this month’s Paralympic Games. Martin – a visually impaired para-athlete – will be taking to the track with pilot Eamon Byrne in the 1km time trial, which is a sprint event. The majority of Martin and Eamon’s preparations have had to take place at camps abroad as Ireland does not have a velodrome – an indoor arena for track cycling. They were on the Iberian coast for their final training sessions before heading for Tokyo. “I am in Portugal for the next few days and we will soon be on the flight to Tokyo after we have had a couple of days of recovery. All of the hard work and effort will be in the legs by then,” Martin said.
“We get through a lot of gym sessions, doing deadlifts and core work. With our event being the sprint we have to be able to move at fast speeds so the gym work is very important. “That is usually followed by a day on the track doing half distances. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but for sprints, it is for the amount of power you have to get into your legs in the quickest amount of time.”
Martin and Eamon were confirmed as members of Team Ireland last month. The Hazelwood native revealed that they had known much sooner that their dream was becoming a reality, but not being able to share the news with everyone for a number of weeks was difficult.
“We knew in mid-June. We had just returned from a tournament and the coach congratulated us and said we were on the team. That was like stepping on a rollercoaster for us, we went through every emotion, it all got very real when it was official and all the while we had to sit on it as a secret until Team Ireland publicly announced it a few weeks ago.”
This is Martin’s debut at the Paralympic Games, but it isn’t his first attempt at qualification.
The barrister was previously an endurance cyclist who narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Games in Brazil in 2016.
After missing out five years ago, Martin took the time to re-evaluate his hopes for the next Paralympic Games which prompted him to switch to sprint cycling – a decision he never looked back on. “I was an endurance cyclist up until five years ago. I was very close to qualifying for Rio. I knew I had the skill set to be a sprinter and I tested well as one too so I made the decision that year to become one.
Thankfully I’ve gone from strengthto strength competing at the likes of World Championships and competing with the very best on a consistent basis.”
Martin and Eamon currently hold the national record in their event, standing at 63 seconds across one kilometre. The duo will be aiming to equal or better this record in Japan with the added difficulty of having no second chances as the event will not have any heats or semi-finals.
He said: “Cycling is very unforgiving. The difference in how you finish can be a margin 1/1000th of a second. It’s one and done as an event and fine margins are going to come into it. You have to get everything right from the first pedal to the last and it has to be a controlled, powerful effort to get up to speed as quickly as you can.”
Martin and Eamon are heading east with high hopes. While a medal is not the be all and end all of their expectations, Martin said that they are going with the mindset that they are good enough to finish on the podium if they can deliver that personal best ever performance that they are keen to record. “Every athlete dreams of bringing home a medal and we are no different. When you come this far you have to have that ambition.
“Our priority is to put in our best ever performance, we can only look after what we do so there is no point fretting over anyone else when it’s not something you can control.
“We are only focused on ourselves and we are competing at a standard we have worked very hard to be a part of. If we come home having recorded our best ever performance we will be happy – if that performance delivers a medal, we will be very happy!”
Cycling events, as Martin previously mentioned, are unforgiving and this is a particularly competitive field.
Having consistently represented Ireland at World Championships in recent years, Martin and Eamon are familiar with many of their fellow para-athletes who they will meet on the track on the day.
What happens across that one kilometre will be fiercely competitive, but Martin said there is also a strong mutual friendship off the track.
“I know a lot of the sprinters on and off the track. On the day of any race we are very competitive, but it stops and ends on the track.
“There is a great social culture among athletes off the track and that is very true of all the Games. We are all in the trenches in this event so I think there is a camaraderie there from just knowing what we have all had to do to be where we are.”
Martin – along with fellow Sligo para-athlete Patrick Flanagan – mirrors the local representation at this year’s game following the appearance of Mona McSharry and Chris O’Donnell at the Olympic Games. He closely followed their journey and considers himself in the same boat as someone not only flying the flag for Ireland, but also for Sligo. “What they have done definitely resonates with you. Four people from one place the size of Sligo competing at these Games is amazing. There is an immense pride not only in representing your county but also representing your home place.”
Martin’s personality is very much that of a person who considers the glass to be half full.
He has faced the difficult experience of overcoming the challenges posed to someone who lost their sight due to glaucoma. He never let it get the better of him and his story as a Paralympian is a testament to that.
What he has achieved began with foundations in Sligo as he credited the large support structure he had around him which became evident within the first year of acquiring his disability as the former Grammar School pupil became the first ever guide dog owner in Ireland to sit the Leaving Cert.
“I’m very fortunate that life has been kind. I have had a privileged life – I am privileged to have had a family, friends, school and community who helped me when life was at its toughest.
“Sligo was an important launch pad for everything that has happened since, in many ways it shaped me into who I am.
“Everyone with a disability faces their own challenges and my own was an acquired disability. It’s a massive honour to have this opportunity to represent everyone who helped me and has supported me – it takes a community to make an athlete, and it also takes one to make a para-athlete.” Martin Gordon and Eamon Byrne will be in action on Saturday, August 28. They are expected to take to the track between the hours of 3am and 4am (Irish time). The event will be live on RTÉ and RTÉ Player.