POWER COUPLE
Golden day for Fachie family as both Neil and Lora pedal to glory in Tokyo
PERFECT race. Magical day. Super Saturday. Neil Fachie couldn’t imagine anything better than this after reclaiming his 1,000-metre cycling time trial title at the Paralympics and then seeing wife Lora retain her 3,000m individual pursuit crown less than an hour later.
The golden couple of Tokyo, with a world record apiece, on a day that saw the Brits complete a clean sweep and top the final medal table in the velodrome.
Visually-impaired Fachie and his pilot Matt Rotherham lowered their own kilo benchmark on the tandem to 58.038seconds — a new world record — to see off James Ball and Scots pilot Lewis Stewart.
‘You’re always aspiring for the perfect race, and it’s something you never achieve but I feel like that was pretty damn close,’ said the 37-year-old Aberdonian. ‘I knew we were fast. The bike felt fast. We just had to dig as deep in that last lap as we could. When Matt told me the time, I couldn’t believe it.’
It got even better when Lora and Corinne Hall then repeated their win from Rio 2016 by holding off Ireland’s Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal in another world record time.
‘We want each other to win,’ Lora, 32, said. ‘But it doesn’t change anything if we don’t. It was great to see him go and do an absolutely cracking time.’
Golds at the same Paralympics have always evaded the pair, with Neil achieving the feat in London and Lora in Rio 2016. The pair had thought Tokyo might be their last Paralympics, though they were rethinking that last night. The success inevitably invited comparison with the stellar Jason and Laura Kenny.
‘The Kennys are incredible so to be even in the same sentence as them is amazing,’ said Neil. ‘Lora and I have had mixed success over the years. We thought the moment might not happen when we both won gold.
‘The fact is she just obliterated the world record, and I have as well. Nobody even dreams of this. It’s way beyond anything you can imagine. I know how hard Lora works. She’s been fighting for this and she deserves every bit of it.
‘We did long rides in lockdown and Lora was destroying me. I’m a sprinter, I don’t do long rides! I was getting up knackered every day doing three or four-hour rides. I’d get up in the morning and Lora would say: “Here we go again!” But it made me so fit. I can see why she’s a Paralympic champion.’
Neil has kicked any plans to retire into touch with a chance next year to become Scotland’s most-successful competitor at the Commonwealth Games by adding to his four previous golds.
‘We’ll keep going,’ he said. ‘Paris 2024 is only three years away and we’re a long way ahead of everyone else, so let’s keep going. Why not?’
Stewart, with a maiden silver at age 21, had no complaints about his silver behind his compatriots. ‘It’s been a close battle for the past 18 months because we’re in training every day together,’ the Highlander said.
‘One day you’re faster than them — the next day they’re faster than you, and it pushes you on every single day. Then you come to the race. It’s nice to share the podium with them.’
Jenny Holl made it a full house of Scottish medals when the 21-year-old, from Stirling, and her partner Sophie Unwin set a pursuit world record in qualifying before settling for bronze as Lora Fachie stormed clear.
‘We are still so new,’ said Holl who will take her best shot in the road race later this week. ‘Realistically, our goal is Paris, we want to go, and we want to win.’
Jody Cundy, Kadeena Cox and Jaco Van Gass made it three golds out of three for the UK in Izu in the mixed cycling track C1-5 750m team sprint in a world record of 47.579secs.
Every one of the British cycling team will return home from Japan with a medal but, after losing his 1,000m title, this was a tale of redemption for Cundy.
‘I knew when I got up today I wasn’t settling for silver,’ said the 42-year-old Englishman. ‘Winning a silver in the kilo the other day, doing a phenomenal ride and losing — the frustration of not coming home with a gold medal came out. It was the perfect race to end a perfect competition.’
27
Neil Fachie has won 27 medals in the
Paralympics, World
Championships and
Commonwealth
Games combined