Great Britain’s leading BMX rider Shanaze Reade was unable to win a medal in today’s BMX competition, which was won by Mariana Pajon of Colombia.
The 2011 world champion was a deserved winner as she remained unbeaten throughout all her races here at London 2012. Sarah Walker of New Zealand took silver and Laura Smulders of the Netherlands took bronze.
Known as the most dangerous sport at the Olympics, it lived up to its reputation with one rider stretchered off in the semi-finals and crashes in every race of the day.
23 year old Reade was hoping to lay her Olympic demons to rest in London, after she missed out on a medal in Beijing following an all or nothing ride that saw her crash out in the final.
But it was not to be. Following a slow start by the four-time world champion, she was unable to recover and could only manage sixth.
Speaking afterwards Reade said, “The race schedule has been pretty hard, with the back-to-back laps. It’s been hard to recover. I just tried to stay focused and do my absolute best, but today it just wasn’t good enough.
“At the moment I’m pretty emotionless. I do not have any emotion in me yet, but I am sure it will sink in. The Games is the biggest platform you can race at and you’ve just got to give it your best.
“I felt like I was fast enough and I had done all the work that I needed to. Unfortunately, I just didn’t have the start I wanted or needed to win the race. That was it.”
Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
