Support truly
independent journalism
There is no world in which Jody Cundy doesn’t medal at a Paralympic Games.
The 45-year-old combined with Kadeena Cox and Jaco van Gass to successfully defend their mixed team sprint title in the velodrome, making it eight medals from eight appearances for ParalympicsGB.
It meant that Cundy had clinched the sixth gold of his track cycling career and 13th overall medal since he made his debut in the pool all the way back at Atlanta 1996.
He did it in emphatic style in the French capital as the trio crossed the line in a time of 47.738s to beat Spain by almost two seconds.
Having proven his longevity in spade loads, Cundy noted that there are definitely a few more years left in him on the track ahead of a possible ninth Games in LA.
“It’s hard to believe that I’ve got nine gold medals,” said Cundy, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.
“I couldn’t have imagined where I’d be when I started this journey in 1996.
“Another gold medal around my neck and it’s fabulous.
“I love the sport and I’m still able to compete at the top end and do the training that I need to.
“In November it will have been thirty years since I first represented Great Britian and I’m still strong.
“I’m not sure I’ll be going another thirty years, but I can certainly get one or two more in there and then see where I am for LA.”
It wasn’t quite a world record for the trio - just shy of the one they set in Tokyo by 0.159s - but it wrapped up a glittering medal haul for ParalympicsGB in the velodrome as Britain soared to 14 medals, including five golds.
And with enough gold medals to pick favourites, Cundy was already ranking the experience among one of the best he’s had.
“Tokyo is still my favourite gold medal just because you never have the perfect race but that was,” he said.
“Today we weren’t a million miles off that perfect race, but we had the crowd and friends and family here.
“It’s definitely high up there on my medals.”
Cox led off on the first lap in a storming 250m that put to bed any doubts she had after crashing out of the women’s 500m time trial on the opening day of competition.
With redemption coming in the form of a gold medal, Cox revealed that it tasted all the sweeter after a difficult start to the Games.
“After the highs and lows of this week it’s nice to come out and win a Paralympic title,” she said.
“I’d like to say it’s frustrating to not have two but I’m happy to have done what I needed to do for the boys.
“It took a lot to get me back out here and I had to climb over a big hurdle to get back onto the start line.
“I tried not to tear up as I got out for the qualifiers as I was scared and didn’t want to disappoint the team or let myself down.
“Being able to overcome that and go better in the final, I’ll give myself a pat on the pack.”
James Ball and Sophie Unwin both topping the medal podium on a day that yielded three golds.
Ball stormed to men’s tandem kilo victory alongside pilot Steffan Lloyd and dethroned team-mate and Tokyo 2020 winner Neil Fachie in a time of 58.964s.
It was an emphatic victory for 33-year-old as he ended a long wait for a godl medal.
“I’ve been waiting for a medal like that since 2016 and to have my friends and family here to celebrate with is outrageous,” he said.
“We knew we had our work cut out for us, in 2020 Neil went 1.5 seconds faster than us which in the kilo is a lot. We knew what we had to beat, and the adrenaline was there.”
Unwin finally chased down her maiden Paralympic gold in Paris.
After taking time trial bronze earlier in the week, the Brit stepped up to take a first Paralympic victory alongside pilot Jenny Holl in the women’s 3000m individual pursuit with a time of 3:19.149 after breaking the world record earlier in qualifying.
National Lottery players raise more than £30million a week for Good Causes including vital funding into sport – from grassroots to elite. To find out more visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk
