First lady of cycling Dame Laura Kenny was so shocked by Olympic golden boy Matt Walls' terrifying 40mph smash at the Commonwealth Games she was almost too frightened to race three hours later.
Team GB 's queen of the velodrome called for improved trackside safety after a miracle at the Lee Valley VeloPark resulted in no serious injuries. Kenny trailed home a disappointing 13th in the women's points race and admitted she rode a “terrible” 100 laps tactically.
But after watching on TV as Tokyo 2020 omnium champion Walls was catapulted into the crowd in a horrific pile-up, Britain's most successful female Olympic athlete texted husband Sir Jason and told him: “I'm not sure I want to do this.”
Walls, 24, was taken to hospital by ambulance, with siren wailing, after being sent hurtling over the barrier at the top of the banking. He was later discharged with stitches in his forehead, scrapes and bruises but no major injuries.
Two spectators – a male bleeding from one arm and a young girl – were given first aid treatment at the venue, but Walls and fellow riders Matt Bostock and Derek Gee were taken to hospital. Kenny, watching on TV from her apartment in the athletes' village, said: “It was horrendous and it was playing on my mind earlier. I messaged Jase and said, “Woah, I'm not even sure I want to do this.'
“Everything else is put into perspective when something like that happens and I'm just glad he was conscious straight away because Joe Truman's crash yesterday was a bad one as well. We all know it's a dangerous sport – you need to be physically fit to put yourself at the forefront of it but the crashes are getting worse because the speeds are getting faster.
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"We're getting more aerodynamic, which means you do travel faster, and pursuit positions we're getting put in are so extreme that you're seeing people crash into the back of each other. I do think that he faster we go, the more dangerous the sport is becoming.
“Maybe we need screens – Matt should not have been able to go over the top and collide with a little girl. That's pretty damned dangerous for him and for the spectators. That's the third time that I've seen someone go over the top – is the top a bit too dangerous now?
"I'm pretty sure if Matt had come this way (down the slope) it would have been bad, but maybe not as bad. I know everyone was saying he was conscious straight away and joking with the paramedics, which is brilliant to hear, but if he had come this way he would have done less damage – he would certainly have done less damage to the little girl.”
Scotland's Neah Evans added silver in the points race to her bronze in the women's individual pursuit. High-speed crashes are a rite of passage in track cycling, but nobody could remember a more frightening accident than the carnage that sent Walls flying into the crowd with his bike. Stand in the sprinters' lane and the banking at each end of a velodrome looks steeper than the north face of the Eiger.
From ground level it looks impossible to crash at the top of the slope. But as the men's 15km scratch race qualifier was entering its final lap, an extraordinary sequence of events unfolded. In a domino-effect crash working its way uphill, Walls had been trying to avoid riders who had fallen in an incident that began on the entrance to the corner.
As New Zealand's George Jackson and Australia's Josh Duffy were sliding up the banking, Walls was forced up to the barrier - and then sent hurtling over it. Canadian Derek Gee somehow managed to surf the top of the barrier without following Walls into the stands, but Isle of Man rider Matt Bostock was not so lucky as he was wiped out in the mayhem.
Eye witnesses said that, because of the steep gradient of the banking, spectators in the front row had been unsighted for the crash until the last split second, when Walls and his bike would have appeared in front of them like seals bobbing to the surface.
With three riders – Walls, Boatock and Gee – taken to hospital and two spectators needing first aid in the arena, the Sunday morning session was abandoned with 3,000 fans asked to leave the 'Pringle' arena.
Mercifully, later in the day medical bulletins on the stricken riders were more encouraging than the shocking live footage. Walls' crash came 24 hours after England team-mate Truman was taken to hospital with a broken collarbone and concussion after another frightening smash in the men's keirin semi-finals on Saturday.
