How Flying Fachie joined golden greats
SCOTTISH track cyclist Neil Fachie made history yesterday when he won his fourth gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.
The 34-year-old pedalled to victory in the men’s blind and visually impaired sprint final along with his pilot Matt Rotherham – bringing his total on the Gold Coast to two gold medals.
This was on top of the ten-time world champion’s double gold win at the Glasgow games in 2014.
His achievements mean he has become only the third Scot ever to win four Commonwealth golds – alongside sprinter Allan Wells and bowler Alex Marshall.
He told BBC Scotland: ‘I’m so happy with this, it’s a dream come true to defend these titles. Our training has been great and we were in the form of our lives.’
Fachie, who was born in Aberdeen with a congenital eye condition, retinitis pigmentosa, was the first Scottish athlete to take home a gold in this year’s Games when he won the 1,000m time trial on the opening day of competition.
His success in Australia yesterday came as Team Scotland added two more silver medals and two bronzes to the tally, bringing the nation’s total to 15 and putting Scotland in sixth place in the medal table.
Scotland’s Jack Carlin took silver in the men’s sprint in cycling, along with Katie Archibald, 24, who also won silver in the women’s 25km points race finals, followed by Neah Evans, 27, who took home the bronze.
In swimming, Alloa-born Duncan Scott won his third bronze in two days after a powerful charge in the men’s 200m butterfly.
Fachie is now a three-time Paralympic Games medallist and holds the world record for the 1km time trial and flying 200m, as well as the Commonwealth Games record in the 1km time trial.
Originally, the Scot ran for Great Britain in Beijing at the 2008 Paralympics. He decided to make the switch to track cycling and, at the 2009 para-cycling track world championships in Manchester, the sportsman took the first of ten gold medals.