Shriever eighth after GB team-mate Whyte crashes

Bethany Shriever’s Olympic title defence ended in disappointment as the Team GB rider finished last in the BMX racing final in Paris.

The Tokyo 2020 champion had won all six of her races in reaching the final, but was boxed in from the start and could not recover as Australia’s Saya Sakakibara took gold at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines BMX Stadium.

Dutch rider Manon Veenstra finished second, with Switzerland’s Zoe Claessens taking bronze.

Shriever, 25, had faced a battle just to compete in Paris after fracturing her collarbone at the World Championships in May.

Her compatriot Kye Whyte, who took silver at the rescheduled Tokyo Games, suffered a nasty crash in his second semi-final run to miss out on the final.

Whyte had finished fifth in his opening ride but left the track on a stretcher after coming off his bike in the second.

A statement from British Cycling said an immediate review had “delivered a positive report” with “no significant injuries”.

Whyte, 24, was nicknamed the ‘Prince of Peckham’ after his silver medal in Tokyo but has since struggled with illness, and said after Thursday’s quarter-final heats he had suffered a recurrence of a back problem.

In Whyte’s absence there were remarkable scenes in the men’s final, with French trio Joris Daudet, Sylvain Andre and Romain Mahieu filling the top three spots before celebrating wildly with a fervent crowd.