When the red mist descended on Jody Cundy in London four years ago, his eruption was volcanic. The wound was raw, the sting of disappointment was too much to bear in the heat of the moment and Cundy could not stop himself from launching into an expletive-laden rant when he realised that the commissaire had disqualified him from the C4/5 1km time trial for slipping through the start gate too soon. He thought that would never be in a position like this again. He was wrong.
After four years of waiting for that “fucking re-ride” – to borrow one of Cundy’s phrases back on the extraordinary evening when his hopes were dashed in front of his home crowd – the ParalympicsGB cyclist was in scintillating form in the Rio Velodrome, finally winning the gold medal that he felt should have been his at London 2012.
“This day has been on my mind ever since I threw water bottles around and kicked off in the Velodrome,” Cundy said. “It has been on my mind to do this.”
Most satisfying of all, he won in style. Any fears that Cundy would experience difficulties when he approached that pesky start gate proved unfounded and his victory never looked in doubt once he was away. The 37-year-old, a lower leg amputee, managed to set a new Paralympic record of 1min 04.492sec.
“When I got on that start, all I wanted to do was get out of the gate,” Cundy said. “I was so nervous about that. But in a way, I used the nervous energy to win.”
The pre-race prediction was that the biggest challenge to Cundy would come from his team-mate, Jon-Allan Butterworth, who will race with him in the 750m mixed team sprint. Butterworth is a former soldier who lost his left arm after a rocket attack in Iraq in 2007.
After joining the British para-cycling development programme, the 30-year-old won three silvers in London. However he was pushed into fourth place on Friday night, with Slovakia’s Jozef Metelka finishing second and Spain’s Alfonso Cabello Lllamas in third. His time of 1min 04.733sec was not enough.
Although Butterworth missed out on a medal, it was another fine day for Britain in the Velodrome. Sophie Thornhill clinched her first ever Paralympics gold in the morning. The 20-year-old, a visually impaired rider from Stockport, won the B 1km time trial with her pilot, Helen Scott.
