The sport of pursuit cycling is one of risk and reward and Britain’s Archie Atkinson felt the sharp edge of that when he was denied a gold medal after crashing out of the men’s C4 4,000m final on the penultimate lap.
Atkinson had been about six seconds ahead of his rival, Jozef Metelka, of Slovakia, but the gap was closing as the race reached its climax. The 20-year-old sensation set a world record in qualifying and was looking to kick on again one final time, only for the air to be sucked from the velodrome when his bike slipped out from underneath him as he came round the top bend.
Clearly in pain, and with his family watching on from the stands soon in tears, Atkinson was forced to take to his feet and walk supported round the track as he went off for treatment. Metelka claimed victory but, after checking on Atkinson as soon as his bike had come to a halt, found his ability to celebrate constrained. The capacity crowd had taken to their feet and begun to chant “Archie! Archie!”
Atkinson recovered enough to be able to take part in the medal ceremony and when the crowd began to serenade him again he shook his fist at them with joy. But not long after, he was receiving more care when he began to vomit, apparently suffering from heat exhaustion after his efforts in the stultifying conditions.
Before his bout of sickness, Atkinson put a positive gloss on proceedings. “I think I’m OK. I can see, [my body] is all in one piece, I’m happy,” he said.
“I couldn’t have done any better than that. I dug as deep as I’ve ever dug. I think it showed. I just ran out of energy and went down.
“Today has been mega. It’s been a bit out of this world. I’m very proud, very happy. Paralympic record and a silver medal. I don’t think I’ve seen that in my wildest dreams. To be in the final against Metelka, who’s one of the best C4s we’ve ever had, is a privilege.”
Atkinson had gone out like a rocket, apparently intent on breaking the world record for the second time in a day. After four of the 16 laps, he was two seconds ahead and by halfway the gap was up to five.
At that point, it appeared he had the former Paralympic champion in his sights and looked to kill the race by completing the pursuit.
That proved to be a leap too far, however, and as the race wound into the final quarter Atkinson’s energy was clearly dropping, while Metelka was picking up his pace.
The Slovakian had wound back two seconds by the time the race entered its penultimate lap and Atkinson tried to respond even though the gap was still a substantial five seconds. Then came the catastrophic corner. “This happened last probably when the T rex was around, I feel massively lucky,” said Metelka.
“The luck is from here to the Eiffel Tower and back, it’s just indescribable.
Atkinson’s dramatic rise to the top has appeared to have been fated, having been taught how to ride a track bike by no lesser an expert than Sir Chris Hoy. He will now go again in the road racing competition, fitness allowing.
Jaco van Gass was squeezed out of medal contention in the combined C1-4 classification time trial race, finishing fourth despite a world record time in his C3 class.
Due to a process called “factoring” the times recorded in a mixed race are adjusted according to classification, with Van Gass’s time of 1min 4.825sec recorded at 100% of its time, compared with 92.01% for those competing in the more physically affected C1 category.
“I was the only C3 rider in the finals and to break a world record twice [also in qualifying] and not even get a medal, I’m a little bit heartbroken,” he said.
