GB clinch three golds in last day of track cycling

Great Britain are targeting five medals, including three golds, on the final day of track cycling at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

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.

It 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 targeted another hefty medal haul on day four in the velodrome.

They are also aiming for gold in the mixed team sprint, after the trio of Kadeena Cox, Jaco van Gass and Neil Cundy qualified quickest for the final.

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.

More to follow.