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British cyclist Archie Atkinson was within touching distance of Paralympic gold when he dramatically crashed during the final of the men’s C4 4000m individual pursuit.
The Games debutant led reigning champion Jozef Metelka by around six seconds and looked certain to top the podium.
But he painfully fell with just over two laps to go in Paris before being helped from the track in clear discomfort.
Despite not finishing, the 20-year-old defiantly raised his arms to a sympathetic crowd and was awarded the silver medal after Slovakian rival Metelka capitalised on the shock incident to power on and retain his crown.
“This happened last probably when the T-rex was around, I feel massively lucky,” said 37-year-old Metelka.
“The luck is like from here to the Eiffel Tower and back, it’s just indescribable.
“Cleary, he’s a better rider, he’s stronger, I was five seconds down – you don’t recover from there.
“You can try to upset the rhythm, you can try to play the game and maybe something happens, whether that helped, whatever that was, this was luck that I don’t comprehend.”
Double world champion Atkinson had taken the world record from his opponent in the heats and his domination continued until the untimely tumble.
His agony came just two days after British team-mate Kadeena Cox crashed out of the women’s C4-5 time trial champion at the other end of the velodrome.
Atkinson, who has cerebral palsy, ADHD and is autistic, recovered sufficiently to take his place on the podium following treatment in the track centre.
Supporters in the stands chanted ‘Archie, Archie, Archie’ during the medal ceremony.
“I was the favourite to win, maybe the pressure got to me a bit,” said Atkinson.
“After that world record, I thought, what more can I do? I was going very well. I thought, I have got this, I have got this. Then, bang!
“I could see him. I tried to catch him. It was working, working and then, bang.”
Despite the major setback and concerning scenes, the youngest member of ParalympicsGB’s cycling squad continues to stick it to the school bullies who caused him to quit football.
He smashed Metelka’s previous leading global mark by more than five seconds in qualifying and would have been a deserved Paralympic champion.
Atkinson was initially taught to cycle on the track by six-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy.
The Cheshire rider later joined the British team following a chance encounter with double Paralympic gold medallist Ben Watson while out on a ride with his dad in 2021.
He previously enjoyed para football but gave up after fellow school pupils filmed him playing and then relentlessly ridiculed him having posted the video on social media.
“Hopefully, this is just the start of something big,” added Atkinson.
Earlier, Afghanistan veteran Jaco van Gass was the fastest rider in the men’s C1-3 1000m time trial and twice broke the world record but ultimately had to settle for fourth place due to factored times.
With the event open to riders across three classifications, C1 Chinese pair Zhangyu Li and Weicong Liang took gold and silver respectively, while C2 Frenchman Alexandre Leaute won bronze in front of a passionate home crowd.
C3 athlete Van Gass, who retained his individual pursuit title on Friday, felt there was little more he could do to grab a podium place and called for the sport’s governing body to reconsider how factored times are determined.
“I think it shows that the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) probably need to look into it a little bit,” said the 38-year-old after finishing the final in an unprecedented time of 1:04.825.
“The factoring works off the third rider of each category but the gap between first and third is so big that these top boys, the French and the Chinese benefit so much from it.
“I’m the only C3 rider in the finals and to break a world record twice and not even get a medal…
“I’m a little bit heartbroken but hopefully they’ll look into the factoring system and correct it, that’s all we can hope for.
“I got my world record back and I bettered it in the second run so there’s not much more I can do. It was the best performance I could deliver.”
