(Sportcom) – By her own admission, Marie-Claude Molnar was not at her best on Friday in Belgium, where she took part in her first international event of the season in road paracycling. The Quebecer nonetheless managed to start her campaign on the podium, finishing third in the time trial in the C4 category.
“It was a pretty difficult race, that’s for sure!” She dropped in an interview with Sportcom right from the start.
“We had really good conditions for the race but I can’t say I was 100% from my form. There are days when we have a little less legs and today [vendredi]it was a day like this.”
Nevertheless, the Longueuilloise was proud at the end of this competitive event over 20 kilometers in Ostend. She persisted in completing the top three, just over two minutes behind American Samantha Bosco (29 min 31.08s) and in first place.
Keely Shaw of Saskatchewan (+1 min 18.777s) was awarded Silver at the end of this race, much to the delight of her Maple Leaf teammate.
“With two Canadians on the podium, we can say that our mission for the first event of the season is complete,” she said. From a personal point of view it wasn’t necessarily perfect, but overall a good performance.
find rhythm
During his last international outing, at the World Championships in Cascais (Portugal) in June 2021, Molnar had won both world championship titles in the C4. However, she had missed her Paralympics date due to technical details and canceled competitions during the qualifying process for the Tokyo Games.
Almost a year later, the 39-year-old athlete wants to “start over with a clean slate” and use his upcoming events to find his rhythm, starting with the road race scheduled for Sunday, still near Ostend.
“I came to Belgium to perform well and just do my best. This is an opportunity to start on a good footing. In terms of performance, everything is there, so a good sign for Sunday. It’s going to be an intense race but I’m confident that Keely and I can pull apart again,” she concluded.
Louis-Albert Corriveau-Jolin and Michael Shetler, who also compete in this World Cup, will compete in the T2 class on Saturday. The two Quebecers finished 9th and 10th in their category in Thursday’s time trial.