Great Britain won five medals, including three golds, on the final day of track cycling at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
The mixed team sprint, featuring the trio of Kadeena Cox, Jaco van Gass and Neil Cundy, qualified quickest for the final before thrashing Spain in the medal race.
Earlier, James Ball beat team-mate Neil Fachie to gold in the men’s B 1000m time trial, with Ball having finished second to the Scotsman in Tokyo three years ago.
Then in the women’s B 3000m pursuit, Sophie Unwin and pilot Jenny Holl took gold after beating Irish pair Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal in the final, having already set a new world record in qualifying.
Unwin and Holl produced a stellar display, having trailed the Irish duo by more than a second after 2,000 metres – only to storm the final kilometre and win by over two seconds.
“We knew they were going to be [ahead of us],” said Scot Holl after winning gold. “In the qualifying they were ahead of us until 2,000m, but we knew we have got that fitness.”
Their gold came after Lora Fachie and pilot Corrine Hall defeated team-mates Lizzi Jordan and her guide Dannielle Khan in the bronze-medal race, as GB enjoyed another hefty medal haul on day four in the velodrome.
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Ball overhauls Fachie in British one-two
Fachie was Paralympic champion at Tokyo 2020 and is the reigning world champion and record holder, but he and guide Matthew Rotherham were not overly impressive in qualifying and only fourth fastest.
They needed major improvement in the final and were clearly pumped up to do so – Rotherham shouting and slapping his thighs as he entered the track – and they produced a much quicker run in the final of 59.312 seconds.
But they were overhauled by Ball and his pilot Steffan Lloyd, who started slower in the finaland trailed their team-mates by half a second after 125m, but gradually reeled in Fachie and Rotherham with a time of 58.964s.
And when German pair Thomas Ulbricht and Robert Foerstemann – who had qualified quickest – could only come third in the final, it sealed a British one-two.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Welshman Ball, 33. “Waiting for your turn to go up, we knew we’d have to follow something big from Matt and Neil, that’s how it’s always gone.
“Our partnership has had time to gel, we have been trying to match them in the first 500m, that’s what we didn’t have [before]. We have been working for this a long time and it has paid off today.”
Unwin and Holl followed Ball’s gold by confirming their ascension to the top of their discipline, having also become world champions in 2023.
Lora Fachie was aiming for her third successive Paralympic title, but was comprehensively overhauled by Unwin, who also beat her world record in qualifying by nearly two seconds.
“This was the event we wanted, we set out the goal after the World Championships last year,” said Unwin, 30.
“We said pursuit is what we want. We tried something totally new coming into this, we weren’t sure it was going to work out for us. It’s just incredible.”
Holl, 24, added: “It feels so good, this is the one we have worked three years for, what it is all about.
“Every training session, every meeting, it is for Paris, about Paris, and we are so glad we could pull it off on the day.
“I burst into tears as I ran up to my parents. It matters so much to have so many family and friends here.”
More to follow.
Source Agencies
