Ball beats Fachie as GB target cycling medal rush

James Ball beat team mate Neil Fachie to cycling gold at the Paris 2024 Paralympics as Great Britain target another hefty medal haul on day four in the velodrome.

Fachie was Paralympic champion at Tokyo 2020 in the men’s B 1000m time trial, 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 had to settle for silver behind Fachie and Rotherham three years ago in Tokyo.

Ball and Lloyd started slower and 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.