Atkinson proud of silver despite late fall

Archie Atkinson cherished Paralympic silver despite falling from his bike with gold in his grasp.

The 20-year-old smashed the 4km pursuit world record by five seconds in qualifying and looked nailed on for gold with less than a minute of the final to go.

But Atkinson was pushing so hard with two laps left that he agonisingly lost control on the top bend and fell to the bottom of the track.

Slovakia’s Jozef Metelka was left to coast home while Atkinson was treated by medical staff as chants of ‘Archie’ rang around the velodrome.

“I dug as deep as I’ve ever dug and it showed,” said Atkinson.

“I just ran out of energy and went down but I’m so proud, so happy. A world record and a silver medal, I wouldn’t have believed that in my wildest dream.”

Atkinson’s silver was the ninth medal won by ParalympicsGB in the velodrome, with plenty more chances to come on the final day of track racing.

The youngster is also targeting gold in next week’s time trial on the road, an event that he has described as: ‘the ultimate in cycling’.

A second podium finish in 24 hours proved beyond Jaco van Gass, who finished fourth in the 1000m time trial.

Van Gass caused a sensation by winning 3000m pursuit gold just a few days after being involved in a serious road traffic accident.

The 38-year-old broke the C3 world record in qualifying and again in the final but less impaired C1 and C2 athletes were competing in the event, with Van Gass missing the podium due to the system of factored timing used by the UCI.

“We looked at the factored system earlier this year and knew it was going to be hard,” said Van Gass. “I put a lot more effort into the pursuit.

“To break the world record twice and not get a medal, I’m a bit heartbroken, but hopefully they’ll look into the factored system and correct it, that’s all we can hope for.”

“It’s the best performance I could deliver on the day,” he continued. “I had very little sleep last night - I was too excited and happy about the gold.

“I probably wasn’t as fresh as I could have been but it was the best I could ride.”