Archie Atkinson secured a sensational silver medal on the third day of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games after a dramatic crash in the final saw him just miss out on gold.
Men’s C4 4km Individual Pursuit
It was a tale of two halves for Archie Atkinson, who stormed to an incredible world record in the men’s C4 4km individual pursuit qualifier, before pushing so hard in his gold medal final that he crashed out with less than two laps to go, taking the silver medal.
Qualification saw 20-year-old Atkinson go head-to-head with two-time Paralympic individual pursuit champion Josef Metelka (Slovakia) in an incredibly dominant ride. Atkinson did not let up and reaped the rewards with a 5.57 second personal best and a new world record time of 4:17.700, setting him up confidently for the gold medal ride off again Metelka.
Amped up for the gold medal ride, Atkinson went out hard taking over a second lead within the first kilometre, ramping up the pace and being over four seconds ahead by the halfway point. With one kilometre to go, Atkinson had Metelka in his sights and pushed for the catch, getting ahead by 7.123 seconds before disaster struck.Pushing right on the limit, Atkinson lost control and ultimately crashed out of the race. His earlier effort still paid off to see him take home the silver medal.
On the day’s events, Atkinson said:
“I think I’m OK. I can see and I’m all in one piece, so I’m happy. I dug as deep as I’ve ever dug and it showed. I just ran out of energy and went down.”
“It has been mega, out of this world. I feel a bit sick but I’m so proud, so happy. A world record and a silver medal, I wouldn’t have believed that in my wildest dreams. To be in a final against (Jozef) Metelka, one of the best C4s we’ve ever had, is a privilege. In my first Games, two rides against him, one I came out on top of and in the second he was the better rider. Hats off to him.”
Men’s C1-3 1km time-trial
It was also a bittersweet afternoon for Jaco van Gass who took back his world record, not once but twice, but was unable to break the podium, finishing in fourth place in his second track event.
Van Gass put down an incredibly strong qualifier, going head-to-head with current C3 world champion Devon Briggs (New Zealand), putting the power down to break his world record and head into the final fourth fastest with a time of 1:05.083.
A ferocious final saw van Gass give everything he had, backing up his ride and more, breaking the world record for a second time that afternoon in 1:04.825. After fantastic rides from C1 riders Li Zhangyu and Liang Weicong of China, and French C2 Alexandre Léauté, van Gass was pushed just out of the podium positions to take fourth place.
On his fourth place finish, van Gass said: "It's the best performance I could deliver on the day. I had very little sleep last night - I was too excited and happy about the gold. I probably wasn't as fresh today but it was the best I could ride. I wanted that world record back, I was hoping for 1:04 in the qualis but missed it. I'm very pleased to drop into the 1:04s in the final, as happy as I can be. So I’ll need a good night’s sleep and we’ll go again tomorrow.”
Men’s C5 4km Individual Pursuit
Fresh off the back of yesterday’s fantastic silver medal-winning ride, Blaine Hunt was fired up to take on the hotly contested men’s C5 4km individual pursuit. Hunt's qualifying effort saw him topple opponent Zsombor Wermeser (Hungary) comfortably in a time of 4:23,961, but in a stacked field it wasn’t quite enough to see him through to a medal ride and he ultimately finished seventh.
Women’s C1-3 500m time-trial
In her Paralympic cycling debut, Fran Brown took to the boards in the women’s C1-3 500m time-trial qualification. In a tough field, Brown rode a commendable time of 39.481 to finish in eighth place, just outside of a final ride. Brown will be back in competition on the C1-3 road time-trial on Wednesday.
Tomorrow’s final day of track competition will see the men’s tandems compete in the 1km time-trial final, while the women’s tandems take on the individual pursuit and the team sprint trio defend their Paralympic title.
