LONDON, England ● German-born Philip Hindes said he deliberately crashed after making a poor start in the heats of the Olympic track cycling team sprint, an event in which he and fellow Britons Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny went on to win gold.
“We were saying if we have a bad start we need to crash to get a restart,” Hindes was quoted as saying by British newspapers on Thursday.
“I just crashed. I did it on purpose to get a restart… it was all planned really.”
British Cycling said his comments were “lost in translation”, adding the rider only started to learn English in October 2010, while the International Cycling Union (UCI) confirmed the result was not in question.
However, the incident follows closely on the heels of the women’s badminton doubles scandal that erupted earlier this week.
Eight players — four from South Korea and two from China and Indonesia — were expelled from the Olympics for throwing matches in a bid to secure more favourable draws in the knockout stages later in the tournament.
On Thursday, Britain retained the men’s track cycling team sprint title, beating France in the final to give Hoy his fifth Games gold medal.
But the champions had started the day embarrassingly in the qualifying session.
First man Hindes seemed to have trouble with his front wheel and crashed after a quarter of a lap in the match against Germany.
After Britain were allowed to restart, in accordance with UCI rules, Hindes made a cannonball opening to perfectly launch Kenny with Hoy finishing off in style.