Emotional win: France’s Dorian Foulon celebrates with relatives after winning the gold in the men’s C5 4000m individual pursuit final. Inset: Foulon in tears on the podium. — AFP
BRITAIN’S Archie Atkinson and Jaco van Gass came up short in Paralympic track cycling on Saturday as home favourite Dorian Foulon sent the Paris velodrome into raptures by taking gold.
World champion Atkinson, who only turned 20 in July, had to accept silver after slipping and falling dramatically off his bike in the C4 4000m individual pursuit.
Slovakia’s Jozef Metelka cruised to gold as the Briton, was still lying on the track.
“I think I’m OK after the crash, I can see and all in one piece,” Atkinson, who has cerebral palsy, attention deficit disorder and is autistic, told British broadcaster Channel 4.
“I’ve never dug that deep before,” he added.
South African-born Gass finished fourth in the men’s C1-3 1000m time trial after having clinched gold in the C3 3000m individual pursuit final on Friday.
The 38-year-old, who lost his lower left arm in 2009, clocked a world record time but dropped out of medal positions due to the Paralympic track cycling classification system.
“It’s heartbreaking to be very honest,” Gass said.
“It’s just the factoring system, it shows that they don’t quite have it right.
“To ride a world record and not be right in the medals, it shows that the factoring system needs a bit of work,” he added.
In the final race of the day, Foulon had the French flags flying in the stands as he defended his C5 4000m individual pursuit title won at a supporter-less Tokyo Games in emphatic fashion by beating Ukraine’s Yehor Dementyev.
“There are a lot of differences between the titles,” Foulon said.
“The big difference is the crowd, it’s crazy. People had T-shirts with my name on. What is this madness?” he joked after failing to stop the tears during the medal ceremony. — AFP
