Lora Turnham

Lora Turnham
Personal information
Born (1988-09-04) 4 September 1988
Liverpool, England
Team information
Discipline Track, Road
Role Stoker

Lora Turnham (born 4 September 1988) is a visually impaired English racing cyclist who competes in para-cycling tandem road and track events. She is a double world champion, with pilot Corrine Hall, in the tandem road race and 1 km time trial events.

Personal history

Turnham was born in Liverpool, England in 1988.[1] Turnham has a hereditary sight loss condition which also affects her two brothers, Roy and Mark, and her mother.[2] At the age of five she lost her sight, leaving her only with light perception.[1] She now uses a guide dog.[3]

Turnham attended a mainstream school as a child and matriculated to the University of Birmingham where she studied physiotherapy.[2][3]

Cycling career

Turnham comes from a sporting family, both her brothers have represented England in VI (visually impaired) cricket and Roy played 5-a-side football for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Paralympics.[2] Turnham first became involved in cycling in 2009 whilst at university.[2] That year she was teamed up with sighted rider Rebecca Rimmington and Turnham attended her first UCI Para-Cycling World Cup event, in Italy, winning bronze in the Tandem B road race.[1] The following year she took gold, again with Rimmington, in the road race at the Spanish World Cup.[1]

2012 Summer Paralympics

In 2011 Turnham switched pilot, now racing with Fiona Duncan. The two found success at their first major international event when they won the silver at the 2011 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Montichiari in the Pursuit. Turnham also picked up two more World Cup medals that year, a silver and bronze, in Sydney.[1] Turnham and Duncan spent another season together, taking gold in the time trial at the World Cup in Segovia, Spain.[1] Turnham's results saw her selected for the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, selected for both road and track events. On the road Turnham finished 7th in the time trial and 8th in the road race. The time trial was particularly disappointing for Turnham as she suffered a mechanical fault to her bike whilst holding a 14 second lead on the final lap.[2] In the track she finished just outside the podium places in both her events, losing the bronze medal race against British team mate Aileen McGlynn in the individual pursuit and a fourth place finish in the 1km time trial.[2]

Following London Turnham was paired up with a new pilot, Corrine Hall, and quickly her fortunes improved. At the 2013 UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships in Baie-Comeau, the pair took gold in the time trial and silver in the road race.[4] More medals followed with a second world title at the 2014 Road World Championships, this time in the road race, with a further bronze in the time trial.[4] 2014 also saw Turnha collect four more gold medals on the World Cup circuit, two each at Castiglione della Pescaia and Segovia.[1] Although Turnham failed to win a medal in the 2015 World Championships, this time paired with Lauryn Therin, she was back to winning ways when reunited with Hall as they continued to win World Cup gold. A time trial title at Yverdon-les-Bains in Switzerland and both the time trial and road race gold at Pietermaritzburg in South Africa.[1]

2016 Summer Paralympics

In the buildup to the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Turnham and Hall took part in the 2016 Track World Championships, winning bronze in the Tandem individual pursuit.[1] Turnham then travelled to Ostend in Belgium where she took two more silver World Cup medals.[1] The pair were later named as part of the Great Britain team to compete at the Rio Paralympics, entering four events over both road and track disciplines.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "GB Cycling Team Rider Biography: Lora Turnham", britishcycling.org, retrieved 6 August 2016
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "GB Lora Turnham", paralympics.org.uk, retrieved 6 August 2016
  3. 1 2 "Interview with Paralympic cyclists: Lora Turnham and Neil Fachie" (PDF), guidedogs.org.uk, retrieved 6 August 2016
  4. 1 2 "Lora Turnham", rio.paralympics.org.uk, retrieved 6 August 2016
  5. ↑ "Rio Paralympics 2016: Dame Sarah Storey selected for seventh Games". BBC Sport. 16 June 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
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