Van Gass wins cycling gold days after car accident

South Africa-born Jaco van Gass suffered major injuries while serving as a British soldier in Afghanistan

Jaco van Gass revealed he was hit by a car just days before winning Britain's first cycling gold medal of the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

Van Gass beat ParalympicsGB team-mate Fin Graham in the men's C3 3,000m individual pursuit final.

But the 38-year-old said he is fortunate to be at the Games following an incident on the streets of Paris last week.

"I had a little accident last Friday, I was hit by a car," he said.

"We did a recce of the road course last week, a car pulled out in front of me and I went over the bonnet. I had to take a few days off to recover, nurse myself back in, but we managed to recover well.

"We went through significant concussion protocols, I took a day off to let my body settle, then I was back on the bike.

"I was heartbroken, I literally thought this could be my Paralympics done."

Van Gass added that he was taken to hospital, but was released later the same day. He also said the driver of the car stopped, and that passers-by in Paris helped.

He said he was particularly concerned about his knee, which took the brunt of the impact, while he also sported a visible cut to his face.

"The next day is always the hardest as the body settles down, the Saturday was very hard to kind of comprehend - would I be riding? By Sunday I was riding on the track again," he said.

Lizzi Jordan (right) with pilot Dannielle Khan won GB's second gold medal in the Paris velodrome

Van Gass' gold came in a rush of six medals in the velodrome for Great Britain on day two of the 2024 Paralympics.

GB were guaranteed gold and silver in Van Gass' event, as he and Graham met in the final for the second successive Paralympics.

And the result was the same as in Tokyo, as Van Gass - a former soldier who was injured while serving in Afghanistan in 2009 - powered to a comfortable victory by 4.080 seconds.

Lizzi Jordan took gold in the women's B 1,000m time trial with pilot Dannielle Khan.

Team-mate Sophie Unwin secured bronze with pilot Jenny Holl, while GB's Lora Fachie and her guide Corrine Hall finished fourth in the same race.

The medal rush was started by Blaine Hunt as he won silver in the men's C4-5 1,000m time trial.

Hunt was followed on to the podium by Matthew Robertson, who won bronze in the men's C2 3,000m individual pursuit - ParalympicsGB's 100th medal in cycling events.

The 25-year-old from Greenwich easily defeated Japan's Shota Kawamoto to secure a medal on his Paralympic debut.

Jordan's journey to gold began when in 2017 when, aged 19, she was hospitalised after contracting e-coli from a takeaway. She spent two months in a coma, and lost her sight.

An athletic former horse rider, she ran the 2019 London Marathon 18 months after going blind. Impressed, British Cycling invited her to a talent ID day - and she is now a Paralympic champion.

"It's a dream come true," she said. "I've worked really hard from the bottom to the top, and I hope it's an example to people of what you can achieve.

"I had to start from rock bottom, and sport has given me a sense of purpose and achievement, it has saved me.

"I have a different ability now, I have achieved more without my sight than when I had it which is crazy. I had never even been to a velodrome before."

Reigning men's C5 world champion Blaine Hunt picked up silver on Friday in Paris

Making his Paralympic debut at 35, Hunt's time of 1:01.776 was beaten by only 0.126 seconds by Korey Boddington of Australia, who took gold.

Bronze went to Spain's Alfonso Cabello, who edged GB's Jody Cundy into fourth.

Hunt, who suffered knee trauma during botched surgery as a teenager and only joined the British Cycling team in 2021, paid tribute to the sacrifices his family has made.

"All my family are over there and my daughter," Hunt told Channel 4.

"My wife sleeps with three bikes in the bedroom, at least one in the front room - there’s about five in the shed.

"I miss out on family things. My nan died before I came here. They're postponing the funeral so I can be there. It's things like that you miss out on."

Cundy, a nine-time Paralympic medallist who has won a medal in every Games he has participated in - going back to 1996 in Atlanta - now has one more chance to keep that streak going, in the mixed team sprint on Sunday.

"It would have been nice to be on the medal board, but we've got the team sprint in a couple of days so get all the focus back on that and we can come back because we've got Kadeena [Cox, who crashed in her final on Thursday] with a point to prove," the 46-year-old said.

Fellow Brit Archie Atkinson finished fifth behind Hunt and Cundy.