British husband and wife take cycling gold at Tokyo Paralympics in final medal flurry for GB

A British husband and wife have each taken a gold medal at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, in a successful morning for GB where a total of three golds and a silver and bronze were achieved.

Neil Fachie won gold in the men's B 1000m time trial, riding with pilot Matthew Rotherham, as the pair broke their own world record with a time of 58.083 seconds, compatriot James Ball behind in second.

Soon after, Lora Fachie then won the women's B 3000m individual pursuit, also setting a world record, beating out Irishwoman Katie-George Dunlevy as Britiain's Sophie Unwin took bronze.

“The Kennys are an incredible family so to be even in the same sentence as them is amazing," Neil Fachie said after both he and his wife had taken their Paralympic titles and the obvious comparisons to the Kennys were drawn.

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"Lora and I have had mixed success over the years. I won in London, she lost out due to a mechanical, she won gold in Rio and I failed there. We thought the moment might not actually happen when we both won gold.”

 “I’ve never successfully defended a title before so I’m just delighted and it’s been an incredible day," Lora added, having previously won two golds in Rio in 2016. "For me, it’s been a childhood dream to be a world record holder and I now am, thanks to my pilot Corrine Hall.”

“It’s been a tough year for everyone. Some people have retired from sport and both of us thought that it might be it for us after Tokyo," continued Neil. 

"We’ve now both got this renewed love for cycling. We did long rides in lockdown and Lora was absolutely destroying me. I’m a sprinter, I don’t do long rides! I’d get up in the morning and Lora would say: ‘here we go again!’ But it made me so fit and I really enjoyed it, it was just fun, there was no pressure. I can see why she’s a Paralympic champion.”

The third GB gold was in the mixed team sprint event, with Kadeena Cox, Jaco van Gass and Jody Cundy setting a new world record, beating China in the final by one-tenth of a second.

GB have now won 14 track cycling medals at these Games, six of them gold.