PARALYMPIAN Rosemary Gaffney is back on her feet and in the saddle, only four months after open heart surgery. Surgeon Niamh Keenan and her team at the Mater in Cork performed a triple bypass and mitral valve repair on the international rider last September, and they told her she could return to riding 12 weeks after the procedure.

“To the hour, I was back,” said Gaffney, who is no stranger to recovery and rehabilitation, having fought back from serious injury to opposite legs in 2007 and 2014 and is attending cardiac rehab three days a week in Clonmel.