Welsh para-cyclist James Ball has won Wales' first medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham with a silver in the men's tandem B 1,000m time trial.
Along with pilot Matt Rotherham, the pair finished behind Scotland's Neil Fachie on day one of the Games, in front of a crackling crowd in London on Friday.
Ponthir Paralympian Ball, who won two silvers in Australia four years ago, spoke of his frustrations at coming second best, but admitted he will be proud of his achievement when the dust settles. Fachie and Ball went one-two in Tokyo last summer and did so twice at the last Games, Gold Coast 2018, while their rivalry on the track goes back to the World Championships in 2016.
“I’ll be happy tomorrow,” said Newport-born Ball, 31. “I won silver four years ago and it would have been nice to improve on that. We put all the hard work in for gold, that’s what we train for. It’s still a medal on the world stage so I’m really happy with that.
"I am happy because I would never begrudge getting a medal especially at a stadium and unbelievable crowd like this in London."
Ball and tandem pilot Matt Rotherham, who stoked Fachie in Tokyo, laid down the gauntlet with a kio clocking of 1:00:053, then a Games record. The pair watched that new mark fall moments later when Fachie and Lewis Stewart soared down to 59.938 for another stunning big-stage triumph at Ball’s expense.
It was Team Wales’ first medal of the Games, with Ball also getting the nation off the mark on the Gold Coast four years ago. “It’s fantastic, I’m very happy about that,” he said. “There’s a lot of pressure on me going so early in the Games. Hopefully Wales can be proud of that.”
Fachie, 38, who levelled the Scottish record for all-time golds at the Games, paid tribute to Ball and his role in driving up standards in para-cycling. “We train with those guys every day, we knew how good they’d be," the Scotsman said. "I thought when I saw that time, ‘we can beat this'. It was tight but I knew we could do it.
“It’s because of them that we’re going as quick as we are. We’re pushing each other and we don’t want to lose to each other. It’s a friendly rivalry and when we break into home nations, we want to do it for Scotland.”
Elsewhere at the Games, it was a perfect day for table tennis stars Charlotte Carey, from Ebbw Vale, and Carmarthen’s Anna Hursey. As part of the Welsh quartet in the women’s team event, they brushed aside the challenges of Uganda and Vanuatu in their first two games in group four. They combined to win their doubles rubber against Vanuatu 11-1 11-2 11-5 in an emphatic performance as Wales didn’t drop a game.
In the pool, Daniel Jervis finished eighth in the 400m freestyle final but will go in his favoured 1,500m event later in the competition.
Non Stanford, Olivia Mathias and Isabel Morris finished sixth, seventh and 19th in the women's triathlon with the race won by Bermuda's Olympic champion Flora Duffy. Iestyn Harrett and Dominic Coy finished ninth and 18th respectively in the men's event won by England's Alex Yee, while Emyr Evans and Peter Creed won men's singles squash matches in the last 64 round.
Wales women's hockey side lost 4-0 in their opening match against Canada, while the netball side held their own against three-time medallists Jamaica but were ultimately defeated 72-43.
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