World records tumble at National Championships

Neil Fachie and Matt Rotherham set a new world leading time just two weeks ago but this time they smashed the world record in the men’s tandem 1km time trial at the National Track Championships.

The pair clocked a mighty 59.278s, beating the time they set at the Para-Cycling International a fortnight ago by just 0.144s.

Fachie, who has three Paralympic medals, held the previous official world record alongside Pete Mitchell and the pair believe they are already shaping up well for Tokyo 2020.

The pair also went on to win gold in the mixed B flying 200m.

Fachie and Rotherham were not the only record-breakers, with four-time Paralympic champion Jody Cundy breaking the C4 flying 200m world record.

The 40-year-old, who also boasts 15 World Championship golds, stormed round in just 10.485s to leave the rest trailing in his wake.

Jon-Allan Butterworth also set a new world record in the men’s C5 with a time of 10.673s, taking silver behind Cundy in the C1-5 overall classification.

The first gold medal of the weekend went to Kadeena Cox, who claimed victory in the mixed para time trial and the 27-year-old is looking forward to March’s World Championships.

“I am feeling relatively confident or as confident as anyone can be,” she said.

“I am just enjoying being back on the bike which I think is very important.”

Elsewhere, Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott claimed gold in the 1km tandem TT as Great Britain’s leading stars delivered the goods.

“We’re really pleased. We just went nearly a second quicker than we did at the Internationals two weeks ago,” Thornhill said.

“I could not believe it when I saw the clock. We are really chuffed.”