COLIN LYNCH has secured Ireland's fourth medal of the Paralympic Games in Rio with silver in the C2 Road Time Trial.
Manchester-based Lynch completed the 20km course in a time of 28:02.25, over 15 seconds faster than China's Guihua Liang in third, while Tristen Chernove of Canada took gold.
The success comes after Friday's disappointment of finishing fifth and missing out on the chance to compete for bronze in the Men's C2 3,000m Individual Pursuit, an event where Liang and Chernove went on to take gold and silver respectively.
Lynch, who narrowly missed out on a medal at London 2012 by a tenth of a second, launched an online fundraising campaign last year to pay for a new prosthetic leg to ensure he could compete for a medal in Rio.
After the race, he said: "After London I had to do a lot of soul searching and had to ask myself if I was capable of performing at the top level still. After making some changes and reassessing everything I was doing I was able to come back and ever since then I’ve been winning medals, specifically in the time trial, every single year at international level so I knew this was something I was capable of doing.
"I’ve changed everything, we have new coaches, new equipment – I got a new leg! A new cycling leg made for Rio with the help of a lot of people back home."
At the 10km halfway point in Rio today, Lynch's time of 14:37.66 was just shy of 12 seconds behind leader Chernove, but he had a comfortable seven-second cushion between himself and Liang.
Despite recording a faster time in the second half of the race to finish in 28:02.25, Chernove also improved to maintain his lead and secure gold.
Lynch, whose father is from Drogheda, grew up in Canada but has represented Ireland since 2010.
He took up competitive cycling in 2008 and won his first time trial world title in 2011.
In 2015, Lynch won two golds on the UCI World Cup Circuit and this year won a silver in the 3km Pursuit at the World Track Championships.
Lynch is next in action on Friday, alongside compatriot Eoghan Clifford, in the Men's C1-3 Road Race.
