Gaze wins thriller as US rival crashes out

Sam Gaze won a dramatic short-track race at the Mountainbike World Championships in Les Gets, France, yesterday. Four weeks after striking gold in a NZ 1-2 finish with Ben Oliver at the Commonwealth Games, Gaze was locked in a two-way battle with American Christopher Blevins in the closing stages of a thrilling 10-lap race but Blevins, the defending champ, crashed on a rock garden approaching the last corner. Gaze won in 22min 21 sec, with Swiss pair Filippo Colombo and Thomas Litscher three and seven seconds behind.