Bosco, Keith Double U.S. Medal Tally on Penultimate Night of Track Racing

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND – Paralympic medalists Samantha Bosco (Claremont, California) and Aaron Keith (Woodinville, Washington) were determined to end their 2023 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships with hardware picking up three medals for U.S. Paralympics Cycling on the penultimate night at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome. Both athletes will travel to Dumfries and Galloway tomorrow to start their journeys on the road.

Bosco became the most decorated U.S. track athlete – both Paralympic and Olympic – of the event after adding silver and bronze to her collection in the WC4 omnium and WC4 individual pursuit respectively. It was Bosco’s individual pursuit bronze that secured her omnium podium, a medal tallied from points across a combination of all her races.  Bosco’s double wins came after a morning fourth place finish in the WC4 200-meter time trial alongside teammate Shawn Morelli (Meadville, Pennsylvania) who placed sixth.

“I’m still putting it together,” said Bosco. “I qualified fourth for the 3K today so just came in hoping for the best. I knew that I had to give it my all and everything that I had, so that’s what I did. I thought of everybody back home and everybody here - all the staff and my teammates – and just tried to win a bronze which allowed me to secure myself a silver in the podium.”

Keith’s C1 scratch bronze was no easy feat as midway through the race, an unfortunate crash caused the Paralympian to fall off course. Thankfully Keith’s extra lap already gained and a stall in the race gave him the extra boost to keep his third-place spot.

“A lot is going through my mind right now,” said Keith. “I’m thinking about having a crash midrace which I had to figure out if I’m still capable of racing, jumping back on the bike and trying to get on the lap again. I’m super happy that I was able to get bronze and get a medal out of this.”

Men’s B duo Michael Stephens (Colorado Springs, Colorado) and pilot Joe Christiansen (Lyons, Colorado) grabbed the sixth-place finish in the sprint minor finals. The first world championship experience has been a long one in the making as the pair looks to qualify for the upcoming ParaPan American Games this November.

“This week has been incredibly exciting to be here,” said Stephens. “A benchmark that we’ve had for four years now training together. It’s not the end of our road but a start to getting back into training and competitive competition. It’s been amazing that we’ve been able to get here and I’ve been able to compete beside Joe finally.”

In the men’s C5 200m time trial this morning, 2023 world championship silver medalist Chris Murphy (Rancho Cucamonga, California) finished second while fellow American Bryan Larsen (Windsor, California) snagged a sixth-place finish.

Murphy will be joined by six other U.S. competitors for the final day of track cycling on Aug. 8 as the U.S. will look to end with podiums in the two team sprint events. For live updates and results, follow U.S. Paralympics Cycling on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

For media requests and photo inquiries, please contact Annemarie Blanco at Annemarie.Blanco@usopc.org.