Archie Atkinson denied cycling gold after crash in final stage of final

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British cyclist Archie Atkinson was close to winning Paralympic gold when he suffered a dramatic fall in the final of the men’s C4 4000m individual pursuit.

The debutant had a lead of about six seconds over the reigning champion Jozef Metelka and seemed assured of a place on the podium.

But he crashed with just over two laps to go in Paris and was helped off the track in obvious discomfort.

Despite not finishing, the 20-year-old raised his arms to the cheering crowd and was presented with the silver medal after his Slovakian rival Metelka took advantage of the shocking incident to push on and retain his title.

“This probably happened for the last time when the T-rex was here, I feel very happy,” said the 37-year-old Metelka.

“The happiness is like going from here to the Eiffel Tower and back, it’s just indescribable.

“It’s clear that he’s a better rider, he’s stronger. I was five seconds behind. You can’t come back from that.

“You can try to disrupt the rhythm, you can try to play the game and maybe something will happen, whether it helped, whatever it was, this was luck that I don’t understand.”

Two-time world champion Atkinson had taken over his opponent’s world record in the heats and his dominance continued until the untimely fall.

His ordeal came just two days after her British teammate Kadeena Cox, the women’s C4-5 time trial champion, crashed on the other side of the track.

Atkinson, who has cerebral palsy, ADHD and autism, recovered sufficiently to take his place on the podium after receiving treatment on the track.

Supporters in the stands chanted ‘Archie, Archie, Archie’ during the medal ceremony.

“I was the favourite to win, maybe the pressure was a bit too much,” said Atkinson.

“After that world record I thought, what else can I do? I was doing really well. I thought, I’ve got this, I’ve got this. Then, boom!

“I could see him. I tried to catch him. It worked, worked and then, boom.”

Despite the huge setback and disturbing scenes, the youngest member of the ParalympicsGB cycling team continues to harass school bullies who have forced him to quit football.

He improved Metelka’s previous world record by more than five seconds during qualifying and would have been a deserving Paralympic champion.

Atkinson initially learned to ride a bike on the track of six-time Olympic gold medalist Sir Chris Hoy.

The Cheshire rider later joined the British team after meeting two-time Paralympic gold medallist Ben Watson by chance while riding with his father in 2021.

He used to play para-football but gave it up after his fellow students filmed him playing and then ridiculed him mercilessly after posting the video on social media.

“Hopefully this is just the beginning of something big,” Atkinson added.

Earlier, Afghanistan veteran Jaco van Gass was the fastest runner in the men’s 1000m time trial C1-3 and broke the world record twice, but ultimately had to settle for fourth place due to time violations.

The event was open to riders from three classes, but Chinese C1 pair Zhangyu Li and Weicong Liang won gold and silver respectively, while French C2 rider Alexandre Leaute took bronze in front of an enthusiastic home crowd.

C3 athlete Van Gass, who defended his individual pursuit title on Friday, felt there was little more he could do to secure a podium finish and called on the sports association to reconsider the way time factors are determined.

“I think it shows that maybe the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) should take a look at it,” said the 38-year-old after completing the final in an unprecedented time of 1:04.825.

“The factoring works on the third rider in each category, but the gap between first and third place is so big that these top guys, the French and the Chinese, benefit so much from it.

“I’m the only C3 rider in the final and if I break a world record twice and don’t even get a medal…

“I am a little sad about it, but hopefully they will look at the factoring system and correct it. That is all we can hope for.

“I got my world record back and I beat it in the second run, so there’s not much more I can do. It was the best performance I could do.”