Jiří Ježek claimed a silver medal in an incredibly exciting Saturday 4km track pursuit!
In the morning preliminaries he started as one of the favourites in the penultimate ride. He reached the final with a great time 4:41.593 which was a new Paralympic record! However, his main rival Eduard Novak from Romania, the present world champion, soon beat the record and was through to the final with a new world record. In the end Jirka took second place and won fantastic silver medal.
Jirka described his feelings after the race. "It’s hard to describe how happy I am! I was hoping for a medal, so reaching the final was a great success for me. I was trying to beat for the gold medal, but my rival was simply better. But I am really glad of the silver as Carol Eduard Novak has learnt a lot from me in the last years and he now continues in what I started in the Paralympic cycling. We both have done the maximum for today’s race and I believe it’s fair that we could compete for golden medal. Silver is a huge success for me and I am happy that I could reach such a great result in front of my immediate family and close friends. Unfortunately, I can’t celebrate with them yet – there is a lot of "work" waiting for me here in London. But I am really happy that I will not come back empty-handed! "
