22 Aug 2016

Gaze has Olympic debut to forget

1:12 pm on 22 August 2016

Rio 2016 Olympics - Having waited patiently to finally get his Olympic event underway, New Zealand Cross country mountain biker Sam Gaze had a nightmare run this morning.

Sam Gaze

Sam Gaze Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Gaze had a flat tyre on the first lap, before things just got worse meaning he did not finish the race.

"I don't know what to say, I don't even know what to think," he told Sky Sport.

"I came in here in the form of my life, I worked so hard to get to where I was this year. Just from the start, just got swamped at the start, I tried to get myself back had a flat tyre on the first lap, got back on and the gears just stopped working."

Switzerland's Nino Schurter completed his Olympic medal collection, winning gold.

The 30-year-old, third in Beijing and second in London, put the hammer down on the sixth of seven laps of the winding 4.8km circuit in the Rio hills and powered away alone to victory.

Czech Jaroslav Kulhavy, the man who beat five-times world champion Schurter to gold in a thrilling sprint finish in London, took the silver medal 44 seconds back.

Carlos Caloma Nicolas of Spain was third.

Slovakia's Peter Sagan, the world road champion, had a luckless day with punctures ruining his chance of a surprise medal after he had made a flying start.

-Reuters