DONOHOE ON MISSION TO AVENGE WOE

ROBBED of gold in 2016, Alistair Donohoe has been waiting five years to settle a score. Finally, he gets his chance. The Aussie cyclist should have won the class 5 road race at the previous Paralympics, but missed out after being dudded by an opponent, then a technical ruling.

“There’s hardly been a day in the last five years where I haven’t thought about what happened in Rio – it’s been the fuel I’ve used to prepare for Tokyo,” he said.

The incident happened at the end of the road race in Brazil. Donohoe had been biding his time in second place behind Ukraine’s Yegor Dementyev when he made his move right before the finish.

But just as he was overtaking Dementyev, the Ukrainian shifted back into his line, colliding with the Australian and knocking both off their bikes metres from the finish.

Bleeding, Donohoe got back on his feet and stepped across the line first, before getting his wounds tended.

He thought he had won, but was told he hadn’t because the rules state a rider is not deemed to have finished until their bicycle crosses the line.