Larsen earns top four finish in first world championship finals

RIO DE JANERIO – In his third world championship appearance, Paralympic hopeful Bryan Larsen (Windsor, California) ended the second day of the 2024 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships with a pair of personal bests and added fire to his quest for the Paralympic Games Paris 2024. Larsen who made his world championships debut at the soon-to-be Paris Games venue in 2022, garnered a world's fourth-best finish in the men’s C4 individual pursuit final less than one second behind the bronze medalist. Larsen was recently reclassed from the men’s C5 into the C4 division.

The first part of today was just about putting myself out there,” said Larsen. “Moving to the C4s, I didn’t know where I’d stack up out there but I surprised myself. I had to pull it together for the finals and one thing’s true – I’ve been racing my bike for 22 years and nothing is ever gifted to you. I fought as hard as I could in that final and it’s always a gut punch to come up short but I have to be proud of two personal records in one day and just shy of a medal.”

One day after winning bronze in the tandem team sprint, Hannah Chadwick (El Cerrito, California) and pilot Skyler Espinoza (Freeport, Maine) secured themselves into another finals race, this time in the women’s 1km time trial taking the sixth-place finish. The second female tandem duo of Paralympian Amy Dixon (Pound Ridge, New York) with new guide Laurel Rathbun (Monument, Colorado) finished the same race with a top ten ending.

The day’s competition also featured a slew of U.S. Paralympians making their rounds through the 200-meter omnium races for points. Four-time Paralympic medalist Joe Berenyi (Aurora, Illinois) raced to a top-four finish in the men’s C3 class while Aaron Keith (Woodinville, Washington) collected the world’s sixth top-time. It was an eighth for Paralympic gold medalist Sam Bosco (Claremont, California) with teammate Shawn Morelli (Meadville, Pennsylvania) grabbing the eleventh-place spot.

Competition resumes for the third day at the Rio Olympic/Paralympic Velodrome on Friday, March 22. Full results are available at paraworlds2024.veloresults.com with a daily livestream provided on https://www.youtube.com/cpboficial.  For live updates and results, follow U.S. Paralympics Cycling on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

For media requests and photo inquiries, please contact Annemarie Blanco at Annemarie.Blanco@usopc.org.