There were three gold medals for Britain on a triumphant day at the velodrome, starting with a gold and silver in the men’s B 1,000m time trial and finishing with a happy redemption gold for Kadeena Cox in the C1-5 750m team sprint.
Cox, who crashed out of her C4-5 500m time trial final on Thursday, falling at the first bend, rode the first lap in the sprint, followed by Jaco van Gass and Jody Cundy. It was the final gold of the track taken by three British cyclists who, for different reasons, had extra skin in the game.
Cox had called the fall a “nightmare”, while Van Gass, who won gold in the C3 3,000 individual pursuit, had been disappointed with fourth in the C1-3 1,000m time trial, despite breaking his own world record. Cundy, fourth in the C4-5 1,000m time trial, now keeps his record of winning a medal at each of his eight Paralympic Games – a ninth career gold in Paris, and this one containing some metal from the Eiffel Tower. The three shared a hug at the end, draped in a union flag.
For Cox, it had been a hurdle just to get back on the bike. “I was just disappointed in myself, I knew I was mentally not in a good place and I didn’t want to get on the start line and let the boys down, I thought it was better to let someone else [do it] who would be a safer ride.”
But she was persuaded by her two teammates. Cundy knew how it felt, denied a restart in 2012 when his back wheel slipped, much to his finger-wagging fury. “I got about 20 metres in my race in London,” he said.
“I think she got a little bit further, she got to the corner, but I didn’t crash so I’ll give her a bit of stick about that.
“I just told her we do this every day in training, she does starts a lot, she knows how to go in a straight line. I said: ‘You’ve done this hundreds of times before, ignore the crowd, the situation, we’re just riding it, me and Jaco are going to be beside you, we’re there to support you, just get away from us and we’ll chase you down.’”
That is how it turned out, Cox, Van Gass and Cundy, nearly two seconds quicker than the Spanish, collecting Britain’s fifth gold to complete a medal haul of 14 at the velodrome – with the road races to come.
In the men’s B 1,000m time trial, there was a first Paralympic gold for James Ball, who won silver in the same event at Tokyo, with his new pilot, the towering Steffan Lloyd, whom British Cycling coaxed over from rugby.
Because the pair were second quickest in qualifying, they had an agonising wait to see if the German duo would be able to sprint past their time. “I never want to do that again in my life,” Ball said.
“I burst into tears afterwards because I didn’t know what to do. Next time, let’s qualify first so we don’t have to go through that again.
“We were chatting away and realised we couldn’t see the board, the coach said they were six tenths down and we know that, in the kilo, you don’t get that time back, so we were quite confident by lap three that we had it – but it’s not over ‘til it’s over. But what a feeling! Tomorrow is going to be one hell of a day.”
Sophie Unwin and her pilot, Jenny Holl, who picked up bronze and silver at Tokyo, went one better with gold in a thrilling chase in the B 3,000m individual pursuit against Ireland’s Katie‑George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal, hauling them back in the second half of the race.
It was the medal they have been working towards for three years and the pair broke the world record in the morning’s qualifying, their two rides the fastest they had ever done. “It’s incredible,” Unwin said. “We’re known as the chatty ones, but I don’t think either of us have words. The amount of conversations my friends and family have had to deal with from me saying: ‘I can’t do it, I’m not going to make it,’ it’s nice they were here to see it.”
The husband and wife Neil and Lora Fachie, who took golds within 16 minutes of each other at the last Paralympics, had to settle for silver and bronze respectively this time, with their one-year-old, Fraser, watching from the stands.
Neil and his longtime pilot, Matt Rotherham, celebrated silver in the B 1,000m time trial, behind Ball and Lloyd, despite being only fourth fastest in qualifying. Lora, who became the first person to read a bedtime story in braille on CBeebies, collected bronze in the women’s B 3,000m pursuit, and celebrated by hugging Fraser.
