JAMES Ball had the honour of winning the first medal for Wales at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, and he believes his success serves as a perfect motivational tool ahead of Tokyo 2020.

The Ponthir para-cyclist is a former double world champion but wants to add a Paralympic Games title to his growing collection of accolades.

Japan’s capital city hosts the next Paralympics in two years’ time, when Ball hopes to improve on the fifth place he achieved in Rio.

“Winning silver (Ball and guide Peter Mitchell won two silvers in Australia) gives you the motivation to go one better,” he said. “But everyone wants to win and they will be motivated as well.”

He added: “We (Ball and Mitchell) didn’t exactly have the best of starts when we began riding together.

“But we’ve improved by two seconds in the kilo, and that’s quite a lot for that event.

“I know I can still improve. It’s about getting stronger and improving my power to weight ratio.

“The kilo is my main focus as it’s going to be in the Paralympics, and that’s what I’m aiming for.

“We’re two seconds faster than I went in Rio but everyone is on their game at the Paralympics.”

Ball, 26, and Mitchell bagged a silver in the men’s B&VI 1000m Time Trial on the opening day of competition Down Under.

The duo clocked a time of one minute 00.900 seconds, as Scotsman Neil Fachie set a new Games record of one minute 00.065 seconds to land gold.

And for Ball, the time trial silver wasn’t the only piece of shiny metal he got his hands on inside the Anna Meares Velodrome.

Just 48 hours after finishing behind Fachie, Ball did the same in the men’s B&VI sprint to win his second silver of the Games.

Ball was one of five Team Wales members to claim multiple medals on the Gold Coast – swimmers Alys Thomas, Georgia Davies and Chloe Tutton and athlete Olivia Breen were the others.

Wales won 36 medals in all in Australia, 10 of them gold, to make it their best ever Commonwealth Games. They also picked up 36 in Glasgow four years ago but could only manage five golds on that occasion.

“It was amazing,” said Ball. “Two silver medals at my first Commonwealth Games is something to be proud of. We didn’t want anything less than that and we’re both extremely happy – we couldn’t have done any more.”

The former T13 sprinter missed out on the 2012 Paralympics because of a hamstring tear and then suffered numerous injuries the year before the Rio Games in 2016.

However, a British Cycling sports development officer spotted something in Ball and he later rode in Brazil, finishing fifth in the kilo time trial alongside Craig MacClean.

Riding with Matt Rotherham, Ball then won two golds at the 2017 Para- Cycling Track World Championships, an achievement that saw him named Welsh disabled athlete of the year.

And only this March, the Gwent rider, having linked up with Mitchell, won bronze and silver at the world championships in Brazil, as Great Britain topped the medal table.