A local athlete has helped play a pivotal role at the Paralympic games in Paris by piloting one of Team GB’s cyclists to gold.
James Ball and tandem pilot Steffan Lloyd clinched gold for Britain in the men’s B 1000m time trial.
Growing up, Steffan Lloyd from Llandysul always wanted to play Rugby for Wales. He discovered his love for cycling through watching it on TV. When he went along to taster sessions at the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome in Newport Gwent he was instantly hooked.
And he found himself thrust into the limelight earlier this week when he helped pilot fellow Welshman James Ball to gold in the kilo tandem time trial.
Steffan is no stranger to success, at the 2022 Para-cycling World Championships in France he won gold in the tandem team sprint alongside Libby Clegg and Georgia Holt.
James and Steffan have also proved a winning double act.
They won two medals at this year’s World Championships in Rio de Janeiro; a silver in the men’s 1Km time trial and bronze in the men’s tandem sprint.
In front of a home crowd at the 2023 World Championships at the Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow the pair won silver in the men’s 1KM time trial.
And in the 2022 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championship, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines France the pair won gold in the tandem team sprint, silver in the tandem 1km time trial and bronze in the tandem sprint.
Steffan is piloting visually-impaired athlete James Ball.
Former sprinter James was spotted by British Cycling in 2015 and quickly earned a spot on the World Class Performance Programme.
He was selected for the 2016 World Championship team where he picked up a bronze medal in the Tandem B Sprint.
James represented ParalympicsGB at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. The following year he claimed double gold at the World Championships in Los Angeles with victories in the kilo and sprint, piloted by Matt Rotherham.
Further medals were gained – at both the world championships and the Commonwealth Games – in 2018, before Ball returned to the top step of the podium at the 2019 world championships, winning the kilo alongside Pete Mitchell.
In 2020 Ball won sprint gold and kilo silver at the world championships in Milton, piloted by Lewis Stewart. The duo raced to a silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games finishing behind world record breaking team-mates Neil Fachie and Matt Rotherham in the B1000m Time Trial.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here