Golden wonder
Fachie moves into elite company with fourth Commonwealth gold
NEIL FACHIE wants to overtake Allan Wells’ record of Commonwealth Games gold medals — and prove to his old athletics coach that he was right to choose cycling over track and field.
Fachie and pilot Matt Rotherham won the blind and visuallyimpaired sprint event yesterday, taking their tally to two golds.
With four Commonwealth golds overall, Fachie now sits level with former Olympic 100metres champion Wells and lawn bowler Alex Marshall.
Insisting he had not given up on the idea of beating the great man, Fachie recalled Wells trying to guide him into athletics.
‘We used to do a session at Meadowbank when he was mentoring a few of the young athletes,’ he said. ‘I used to run 100m and 200m but I gave it up. We had a few chats, he gave me a few pointers, it didn’t work for me — but it worked out for the best.
‘The ambition was to come here and get four but we knew how hard that was going to be.
‘But we have done it and to get a world record, that was special.
‘It is mind blowing to be on a list like that. Look at some of the names up there, a who’s who of Scottish talent.
‘I know Allan got four golds and a silver, so I am almost up with him. I think I need another Games now to top it. I might go on to Birmingham, we will see.
‘As long as we keep improving, we would definitely love to do it. But we are definitely going to be in Tokyo (for the Paralympics) then we will re-evaluate.’