A BOLTON cyclist is lining up Paralympic glory after success at the UCI Para-cycling World Championship.

Deane’s Matt Rotherham, along with partner Neil Fachie, won two medals in tandem pairs in Canada – gold in the 1km time trial and silver in the sprint.

The duo, Commonwealth Games gold medallists in 2018 for Scotland, shared the top two spots with fellow British pair James Ball and Lewis Stewart as they dominated the podium in Milton.

In the time trial Rotherham and Fachie, the former Canon Slade pupil acting as a pilot for the visually-impaired Scot, were the first to post a time in their Paralympic event. They stopped the clock with an impressive 59.724secs before Ball and Stewart recorded a time of 1:00.323.

That all meant Rotherham and Fachie regained the title they lost last year from the defending champions and proved they are the team to beat heading to Tokyo.

The time was around half a second down on their own world record but this kind of form suggests a new low could be set at the games which begin in August.

It was the fourth year in a row there had been a British one-two in the event.

That was to be the case in the sprint 24 hours later as Ball and Lewis got the better of the best-of-three decider to take the title.

Rotherham and Fachie narrowly posted the fastest qualifying time of 9.785 with both duos navigating their way through the rounds without losing a race.

In the final, Ball and Stewart took first blood, and held on to their lead in the second race to win by just 0.003 seconds and wrap up a 2-0 victory.

Victory in the time trial though means that Rotherham and Fachie headed home with a spring in their step on the road to Tokyo.

“The time was good,” the Bolton rider said.

“I don’t know if it’s any secret now but the track has been quite hard to ride so we chose to sacrifice the race line to have a smooth race.

“The line wasn’t great but we were able to put the power out so it was a bit of a compromise to get round the track but we got the win and the job done and hopefully that gets us to Tokyo now.”

Fachie said: “We wanted this back. We thought it was our title this year, and we’re relieved to come here and do the business.

“Particularly in a Paralympic year – to be world champions is a good sign.”

As a youngster, Rotherham was under the umbrella of British Cycling as one of the country’s brightest prospects, but was dropped from their programme at the age of 19.

He has rebounded however after bursting onto the para-cycling team in 2017, making his mark at that year’s World Championships in Los Angeles as a late replacement.

There cannot have been many riders who have had such an immediate impact on their Great Britain Cycling Team debut as Matt Rotherham.

Following the relatively late announcement of the 2017 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Los Angeles the team found themselves a pilot short, following Pete Mitchell’s decision to miss the event due to the imminent birth of his first child.

Matt, a former European champion as a junior, had pedigree on a tandem, winning the national tandem sprint championships, with his brother Tom in 2015 and Craig Maclean in 2011, and had enjoyed an excellent start to 2017 winning silver medals in the keirin and team sprint events at the 2017 HSBC UK | National Track Championships.