After capturing a silver medal on the velodrome track at the Tokyo Games, Cranbrook cyclist a Paralympic athlete Tristen Chernove has withdrawn from further competition in road events.
Prior to the Tokyo Games, Chernove had signalled his intent to retire from competitive cycling to spend more time with his family.
According to a statement from Cycling Canada, being reclassified into a different competition category for the track event at the Tokyo Games served as an indicator that it was time to shift focus and retire with immediate effect.
“Athlete well-being remains Cycling Canada and the CPC’s [Canadian Paralympic Committee] number one priority during these Games and we will continue to support any athletes who withdraw from competition to protect their physical and emotional health,” reads the statement.
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Last week, Chernove qualified for the gold-medal round in the C1 Individual Pursuit in track cycling, and won a silver medal while going up against Russian opponent Mikhail Astashov.
“The qualifying ride went fairly well and I was super thrilled to make it into the final,” said Chernove, in a Cycling Canada news release. “The final was not so great; I knew he [Astashov] would go out fast and I probably started too fast and was having some breathing issues which added to my blowing up that much sooner.
“It’s a pretty emotional Games for me because I am retiring from para-cycling after these Games and devoting much more of my time to my family so it’s going to be a Games of highs and lows but I’m really excited to move on to the next phase.”
It’s been quite the para-cycling career for Chernove, who got involved with the sport following a diagnosis of Charcot Marie-Tooth disease, a degenerative disease of the peripheral nervous system, in 2009.
He burst onto the para-cycling scene over six years ago, on both track cycling and road racing world cup circuits, consistently earning numerous podium finishes in the following years.
Chernove was named to Team Canada’s para-cycling group for the 2016 Rio Paralympics in Brazil, winning a colourful slate of gold, silver and bronze medals in track and road events.
trevor.crawley@cranbrooktownsman.com
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