Paralympics: Swiss cyclist awesome

By GREG ANSLEY

SYDNEY - Beat Schwarzenbach came out of nowhere.

The 32-year-old Swiss cyclist was the man everyone was watching in the 1km time trial in which Blenheim's Mark Inglis, another sudden burst of talent, won silver on the first day of the Paralympic Games.

Yesterday he blitzed the LC3 mixed individual pursuit ahead of a field that left the world record set by Christchurch's Paul Jesson in tatters.

Jesson himself beat his own record three times in the event - and still finished fourth.

Even in day of crashing records at the Dunc Gray Velodrome, the battle for medals in the event that Jesson made his own at the 1998 world championships was a show-stopper. With nine new world records set by the time Jesson lined up for the semifinals, this was no small achievement.

It eclipsed even the final of the 1km men's open tandem time trial, in which the world-beating ride by Britain's Iain Dawson and Raymond Hughes was immediately topped by Japanese pair Shigeo Yoshihara and Koichi Mizusawa.

And the semifinals ride by Schwarzenbach, won when he overtook eventual bronze medallist Michal Stark, of the Czech Republic, was awesome.

"I don't know where he came from, but I'm bloody glad I beat him in the kilo," Inglis said as he watched the Swiss phenomenum cruise past Stark.

The warning had been sounded in Sunday's qualifying rounds, when Jesson broke his own 5m 32.4s record by 5s.

It was sufficient to push him through to the semifinals, but it was immediately capped by an astonishing 5m 16.433s ride by Schwarzenbach, slicing 15.96s off Jesson's record.

In the finals, Schwarzenbach, an amputee, won gold by overtaking Spaniard Jose Andres Blanco.

For Jesson, a 45-year-old amputee who before losing a leg was a professional rider who had won a stage of the 1980 Tour de Spain and competed in the Tour de France, yesterday's fourth placing was a blow. "I did my very best, and I can't do more than that," he said.

"I beat my old world record on three occasions and it was still not good enough for a medal, so it's pretty tough and I hope people understand that out there.

"[Schwarzenbach] was so far ahead of the field it wasn't funny, but the three of us who were second, third and fourth were within a tenth of a second of each other."

Manager Wayne Thorpe said Jesson had no reason to feel he had failed.

"Paul feels a bit upset but he's not being realistic I don't think," he said. "He's not getting any younger and he's gone 5s faster than his world record to qualify for the final four.

"There are an awful lot of good riders who didn't make the final four. It's disappointing when you get there and you don't win, but I think he's a winner anyway."

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