Everybody stood up waving banners to bravo the amazing world record set by British blind cyclist Aileen McGlynn and her pilot Ellen Hunter at Paralympic women's 1km time trial, but nobody except themselves knows how much they endured on the way to the top.
![Aileen McGlynn(L) and her pilot Ellen Hunter celebrate. [Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20080910/000bcdb95f1d0a3184a020.jpg "Aileen McGlynn(L) and her pilot Ellen Hunter celebrate. [Xinhua]") |
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Aileen McGlynn(L) and her pilot Ellen Hunter celebrate. [Xinhua]
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Wearing red and blue stripes helmets showing their class, McGlynn, 35, and Hunter, 39, scorched round the 1km circuit chasing the previous best time set by Australia's Felicity Johnson two minutes ago.
To the roar of thousands of spectators cramming the Laoshan Velodrome, they sped up at the last circle and rushed across the terminal nearly one second ahead of closet rivals to grab the gold, smashing both world and Paralympic records going under one minute and 10 seconds for the first time ever.
"She's really coming back strong," Hunter said of her visually impaired partner, adding she always loves to give her wings to feel the outside world.
In Paralympic track cycling, an accredited cyclist like Hunter, known as the pilot, rides on the front of the bike while the visually impaired athlete pedals at the rear.