PERHAPS fittingly for a pair of para cyclists, some swift back-pedalling has been involved when it comes to Aileen McGlynn and Louise Haston’s imminent appearance for Team Scotland in the Gold Coast this April.
The 44-year-old para cyclist from Paisley - who was born with Albinism and partially-sighted, but has defied such conditions to become a three-time Paralympic champion - and her able-bodied 37-year-old tandem pilot from South Queensferry, might have scooped a sensational double of silver medals in the sprint and the kilo at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014, but that was meant to be that.
Haston was first to relent - her planned retirement from the sport to spend more family time lasting ‘about a week’. This was both good and bad news for her husband. Okay, so his wife wasn’t going to be in the house much more, but at least it means she shelved a slow burner of an alternative plan to take up boxing.
“It doesn’t actually seem like four years, it has flown in,” said Haston. “I was meant to be finishing after Glasgow but that lasted about a week. I got back on my bike and my husband was like ‘so much for that’.
“I am glad I went back to cycling, because if I didn’t cycle, I always fancied boxing,” she added. “But my husband is aways like ‘no’.
“I’ve always wanted to box, a couple of times at Meadowbank, I have bumped into Alex Arthur’s training group a few times.
“It is certainly good to get your anger out. I just love hard work, it is just something I would love to do. My husbaned used to box in the army, but I think he is glad that I just do the cycling.”
As for McGlynn, as recently as 2015 she was telling reporters at an exhibition in her honour at Glasgow’s Riverside Museum that she was calling time altogether on her cycling career. She dabbled in a spot of recreational road cycling, which in the case of McGlynn meant tackling the 880 miles between Lands End and John ‘o’ Groats.
But as soon as it was confirmed that the tandem events would be on the Gold Coast roster, she too answered the call. There was even a short spell where the pair might have ridden with someone else, but here they both are, preparing once again to battle the odds for a medal in the Anna Meares Velodrome in April, not to mention their usual nemeses Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott of England.
However they have got there, both appear delighted to have got back on the bike, even if McGlynn once again claims that this will be her last hurrah.
“I think this will probably be my last games if I am honest,” says McGlynn to laughter. “But I am kind of tempted to do a bit more endurance, so I’ll not say I’m definitely retiring.
“I had a break from the intensive training. I went on the road and did a Lands End to John ‘o’ Groats – that was my endurance year.
“It worked out about 880 miles in total, which worked out about 50-80 miles a day. We did it over about 14 days. And it all kind of went fairly well, you know. It was nice when I got back into Scotland and got recognised a bit. I got my photo taken with people and was stopping off in cafes and stuff that was nice.
“But I came back when it was announced that there were going to be tandem events. That was the thing, we didn’t know at that point whether there was going to be tandem events after Glasgow.”
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