Ball In La La Land After Maiden World Success in California

James Ball was California dreaming after bagging his first gold at the Paracycling Track World Championships in Los Angeles.

The Ponthir-born express triumphed with pilot Matt Rotherham in the tandem time trial after clocking one of the fastest 1km timers in history.

The duo set off eighth out of nine pairs, but produced a stunning time of one minute 0.727secs – just over a second behind fellow Brit Neil Fachie and Pete Mitchell’s world record.

Fachie – now partnered with Ball’s first pilot Craig Maclean – took to the track as the final pairing but they fell well short with a time of 1:02.039.

“It’s one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had,” said Ball, who finished fifth with Maclean at the Rio Paralympics.

“I’m really happy with how it turned out and I’m hoping for good things on Sunday in the sprint.

“We’ve only been training together since January, so I’ll take that!”

Ball only switched to cycling after missing out on making the athletics team for London in 2012 following persistent hamstring injuries.

He took bronze in the tandem sprint at last year’s worlds with Maclean and then came fifth in Rio after Britain were handed extra places when Russia were kicked out of the Paralympics