Crawley's Katie-George Dunlevy selected for Ireland for World Championships

It is the first step to her achieving her dream of winning a medal for her country at the 2016 Paralympics in Brazil.

The competition will be held in an indoor velodrome in Aguascalientes from April 10-13.

She will be competing in the Individual Tandem Pursuit and Time Trial.

In 2012 she was hearbreakingly close to winning a medal, when she finished fourth in three different events.

Katie-George, 32, is visually impaired and must ride alongside a fully-sighted partner called a pilot.

She said: “It’s the first track competition I’ve run since London. I’ve got a new pilot (Eve McCrystal) who is new to track racing.

“A knee injury has halted my fitness and strength but I’ve got a good support team around me and my physio has helped me recover.”

The Gossops Green sportswoman said: “I will be using this event to look at where were are standing in the World looking ahead ahead at Rio.

Katie-George is going on a10-day training camp in Majorca before flying direct to Mexico for the World Championships. She has shown her ability to succeed at different sports after first making the headlines in rowing.

In 2004-5 Dunlevy won gold medals at World Championships in Spain and Japan when she represented Great Britain.