Being hit by a car the week before cycling in the Paralympics is not ideal preparation. But it takes more than being sent flying over a bonnet to stop Jaco van Gass – and on Friday afternoon he won gold, gaining time on his teammate Finlay Graham throughout the C3 3,000m individual pursuit final.
It was one of two golds, two silver and two bronze medals for Britain on a bumper day in the dripping heat of the velodrome.
Van Gass had been checking out the road and time trial course when a car pulled out in front of him. For a few hours, he thought his chances of riding had gone. “I was heartbroken … I had a big cut on my head, but I had a few scans and I was cleared. I was looked after really well. The next day is always the hardest because that’s when you’re very sore and stiff. The Saturday was very hard to comprehend – will I be riding? By the Sunday I was on the track.”
Van Gass is not a man to shrink from challenges. He was born in South Africa but moved to the UK to join the Parachute regiment. He was nearing the end of his second tour of Afghanistan when he was hit by a rocket propelled grenade and seriously injured, including the loss of his left arm below the elbow. After recovery, he has thrown himself into a number of extreme physical challenges, including walking to the south pole, as well as joining the British para cycling team.
He won three para medals at Tokyo including gold in the individual pursuit, but wanted to do it again in a buzzing stadium rather than in front of silent stands. And, with the Games mascot Phryges (a prosthesis on its right leg for the Paralympics), tucked under his left arm, he got his wish, waving at his wife and family, a gold medal round his neck. The silver medallist Graham, who also came second to Van Gass in Tokyo, smiled: “At this event there’s no hiding,” he said. “The strongest man wins.”
Lizzi Jordan and her pilot Danni Khan, hooked Britain’s second gold of the afternoon, in the women’s B 1,000m time trial, initially falling behind Australia’s Jess Gallagher and Caitlin Ward, but overhauling their time at the last. Teammates Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl won bronze in the same race.
It was the culmination of an incredible comeback for Jordan who, as teenager, contracted a rare form of E coli poisoning in 2017. It left her in a two-month coma and resulted in multi-organ failure, with her family told she would not pull through. She did, but had to learn to walk again and had lost her sight. “Life as I knew it was over and I started from rock bottom,” she said. “Sport has given me a sense of purpose again in life, it has given me direction, a sense of achievement and saved me.”
She had never been to a velodrome before she started with the British Cycling foundation team in 2020 and though it was hard, she found a perfect pilot in Khan.
“I’m quite an adrenalin junkie really – when I could see, I used to be into horse riding, and I thought whizzing around the velodrome was very appealing. I love the sense of freedom it gives me because being blind I need a guide for walking around, life’s a little bit slower now. But when you’re on the tandem and shooting round the velodrome at 50-60mph it gives me that sense of speed again.
“When I acquired a disability, the word disabled seems really negative. I just think I’ve got a different ability now … to break down the barriers, that you can achieve things without your sight. And actually I’ve achieved more without my sight than I did with my sight – so quite crazy really.”
Blaine Hunt, complete with extravagantly curly handlebar moustache and making his Paralympic debut, raced to silver behind Australian Korey Boddington in the C4-5 1,000m time trial. Matthew Robertson’s bronze in the men’s C2 3000m individual pursuit was Britain’s 100th Paralympic medal in cycling.
