James Ball was as shocked as anyone when he overhauled rival Neil Fachie to claim a maiden Commonwealth gold.
The Ponthir peddler settled for silver behind the Scot for the third time at the Games in the tandem kilo time trial on opening day at London’s velodrome.
But it was a different story in the sprint event where the Paralympic gold and silver medallists did battle in a best-of-three straight-up battle.
Ball and pilot Matt Rotherham stamped their authority on the competition from the qualifying stage when they clocked 9.851 in a flying lap .
The pair had too much for Australian Beau Wootton in the semi-finals before dispatching Fachie in the final to the delight of fans.
It came as a surprise to Ball having targeted the kilo as his best hope of a medal here.
He said: “We just had a good talking to ourselves in the hotel and had to reset to get my mind straight. Even during the qualification we knew it was going to be tough.
“We trained more for the kilo on the Friday so we were aiming for that event.
“On reflection now, I am happy with a silver because it is still a medal at the Commonwealth Games but we just thought we could go a little bit faster so today we have reinstated that now. We knew we were on good form and it was nice to actually see it."
Powerful pilot Rotherham, who stoked Fachie to Paralympic gold in world record time in Tokyo, hailed his team-mate’s performance and hopes he gets greater recognition for his talent from now on.
He said: "It’s been a good switch up actually because why should we ride in the same pairings forever? Even though we were successful in Tokyo, it’s been good to have a trial with James and see what we can do.
“I think today has definitely proved that James is a formidable athlete and an amazing champion. Hopefully, this is the first of James’ five Commonwealth championships.
“James has won against Neil a fair few times actually, he's won world titles against him, sprint, kilo and other races but this does feel like it’s at a noticeable stage.
“Hopefully, people can now start to see James as a true opponent. James can keep going and go on to win more and more so this could be the start of something but we will see how the rest of the season goes.
“I’m just proud of how James turned it around after the loss on Friday and turned that into a 2-0 win in the final.”
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