On his debut for the Great Britain Cycling Team, Wales' James Ball has helped take home the bronze medal in an emphatic first performance in competition.
Ball took up cycling after a talent transfer project by the Disability Sport Wales Academy Programme, moving from Athletics. Since the change, James has thrived in the sport with British Cycing providing Paralympic Championship pilot Craig McClean as his tandem partner.
At the UCI Manchester International Paracycling Championships, James competed in the Sprint event, comfortably qualifying to the knock out stages in a time of 10.336secs, leaving him in third place, and only 0.2 seconds behind the leader.
The quarter finals saw them take on the Spanish tandem pair, successfully winning 2 – 0 on the head-to-head races. The semi-finals was going to be a tough battle against the Dutch no.1 pair, and the first race saw them narrowly beaten to the line. With nothing to lose in the second race, the GB pair went out early to take the lead, and comfortably won, 3 bike lengths ahead of the Dutch pair, however the Dutch put in a protest stating a minor infringement of crossing the sprinters line. This saw the GB pair disqualified, and lose the head-to head 2 – 0.
On to the Bronze ride-off, and again they faced a Dutch pairing, but this time GB showed their dominance taking it 2 – 0, comfortable winners and thoroughly deserved Bronze medallists.
After his first Great Britain Cycling medal, James said: "It was an absolute honour to finally wear the British Cycling kit and deliver for Great Britain on the international stage. It’s nice to see the rewards from all of the hard work I've put in since transferring through the Disability Sport Wales Talent Transfer programme. This is just the start of a new beginning for me and I cannot wait to progress event further and try to achieve even more".
