James Ball treasuring 'magical' maiden Paralympic cycling gold

By Megan Armitage in Paris

James Ball might have been forced to wait for his gold medal celebration, but it was a moment he will remember for the rest of his life.

The Welshman stormed to men’s kilo tandem victory in Paris, dethroning fellow teammate and Tokyo 2020 winner Neil Fachie in a time of 58.964s to take the crown.

It was an emotional win for 33-year-old and pilot Steffan Lloyd as they claimed a maiden Paralympic medal.

But as is the nature of the kilo, it’s not over until the last rider crosses the line and after qualifying second fastest for the final, the duo was forced to wait for Germany’s Thomas Ulbricht and Robert Förstemann to race before the tears could flow in what Ball expressed as a celebration of eight years hard work.

"I've been waiting for a medal like that since 2016 and to have my friends and family here to celebrate with is outrageous," said Ball, 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.

"There are a lot of Welsh flags and t-shirts with my face on which I definitely didn't tell them to do. It's a magical moment.

"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.

"Because we didn't qualify first either we had to wait for our time to see if we won which I never want to do again.

"I burst into tears after because I didn't know what else to do."

Anxiously waiting for the German pair to decipher where medals went, Ball went to stand next to teammate Fachie as the two waited to find out what colour medal they would win.

And with their coach noting the times of each lap to the Brits, Ball admitted that he finally allowed a slither of hope to sink in after witnessing the German's grasp on gold slip away to cross for bronze.

"I was stood with Neil, and we were both trying to wait but then we realised that we couldn't see the board, so we went to find our coach," he said.

"We know how the kilo works; you don't get time back as the race goes on, so we were confident by lap three that we had it."

Fellow Welshman and pilot Lloyd was over-the-moon with a maiden gold himself and gushed over Ball's talent, dutifully naming him one of the greatest athletes in British cycling.

"He is the main man, he works so hard, and my job is to give him the platform so everyone can see how good he is," said Lloyd.

"He's one of the best athletes within British cycling and I just wanted to help him prove that today."

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