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.