Aberdeen's Neil Fachie helps take Britain's UCI medal tally to 14
The cyclist and his pilot, Matthew Rotherham, won gold at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome yesterday
Last updated 29th Jan 2024
Aberdeen’s Neil Fachie and his partner Matthew Rotherham have won gold in the UCI Cycling World Championships.
The pair came out on top in the men's B 1km time trial at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, just narrowly pipping fellow Brits James Ball and Steffan Lloyd to the finish.
They were behind with half a lap to go but powered home to record a winning time of 1:00.287.
That meant they pipped Ball and Lloyd by a mere 0.042 seconds with Germany’s Thomas Ulbricht and Robert Forstemann taking home bronze.
Fachie said: “It’s the first world title with my son in the crowd watching so that was really special too.
“I just love the crowd here – it’s so good. That’s the reason we won that today, the crowd was pushing us.
“We’ve got no idea really when we’re on the bike really whether we’re up or down. So, all we could hear was the crowd roaring. I just assumed we were doing really well because they were cheering us – I thought we must be going really fast.”
Fachie and Rotherham’s final time was slightly slower than the 59.741 seconds they clocked in the qualifiers – they were the only duo to go under a minute.
But Fachie’s win makes it his 17th gold medal at a world championship and a major boost ahead of next year’s Paralympics in Paris.
He added: “The fact we’re going back under 60 seconds regularly – we didn’t in the final there but that’s because of the fact it’s a final – is a good sign and I think by next year we’ll be back in top form.”
The win takes Great Britain’s total medal tally to 14 heading into the third day of the competition.
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