Colbourne (pictured below in blue) initially got Britain off to a great start in the C1 3 kilometres pursuit as he posted the second fastest time in qualification behind Spain's Mendez Fernandez (pictured below in red).

But the impressive track debut prompted a protest from the German team, who claimed Colbourne should be in a different, less disabled class.

The protest led to Colbourne facing potential reclassification half way through the competition but he was eventually deemed to be in correct class by UCI classifiers and able to race in the finals.


As if to prove a point, Colbourne went on to win the pursuit in style by catching his opponent towards the end of the race.

"I don't think it's sunk in yet to be honest," he said.

"Since first stepping on the bike two years ago I've had this dream [to become a world champion] and I didn't know how long the journey would take.

"Today certainly means a heck of a lot to me and to my family and is a result of hard training, lots of efforts on the track and lots of time in the gym.

"Big thanks to my coach Tom Stanton for getting me to possibly the best year of my life."

The other highlight of the day came from GB's two male tandem pairings in the B Kilo.


Defending champion Neil Fachie, piloted by Barney Storey, lost his title to Anthony Kappes, piloted by Craig Maclean, by a mere 0.099 of a second, meaning that the team claimed a gold and silver.

"It was a close race last year when Craig was riding with Neil and today was very similar," said Kappes.

"At 1:03.013, our win was marginal."

MacLean admitted the race was tough.

"You normally feel yourself fatigued after about 2.5 laps but when it's 1.5 laps and you start to blow the gasket, you start to panic a bit," he said.

"Conditions aren't ideal out there and people aren't going that fast.

"The track feels vastly different from Manchester or Newport," he added.


In other events, Darren Kenny had to settle for silver in the C3 3km pursuit final, as did Aileen McGlynn and Helen Scott could not match Australia's world record braking pace in the kilo.

Meanwhile Jody Cundy picked up a bronze in the C4 4km pursuit as he beat Spain's Roberto Garcia Alcaide in the third place ride off.

"Ultimately, London is my main goal and I am still learning in the pursuit," said Cundy.

"It's a very different event to the kilo but I am not a million miles off from where I want to be, Tom Degun, so everything is pointing into the right direction."


There was also an impressive showing from Ireland as Colin Lynch took gold in the C2 3km pursuit.

Lynch set a new Irish Record of 3min 51.640sec in the morning qualifiers to ensure top billing for the gold medal ride off against world record holder Gui Hua Liang of China.

Lynch, like Colbourn (pictured above), also had to contend with a classification protest just before the final but once he was given the all clear, he powered home to beat Liang by six clear seconds in the final.

The four-day competition is the final qualifying event for the Paralympic Games which means that the British and Irish medallists look set to be selected to compete at the Games in 200 days' time.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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