CAV: ‘I DIDN’T LOOK WHERE I WAS GOING’
MARK CAVENDISH has admitted he ‘should have been looking’ where he was going before causing the crash that left a fellow rider in hospital and led for widespread calls for him to be stripped of his Olympic silver medal. Yesterday officials said Cavendish had escaped any sanction after concluding from a video review that it was a ‘racing incident’ in the final 16-lap points race of the omnium. But a crash that occurred when Cavendish cut across Park Sanghoon led to the Korean rider spending a night in hospital with eventual winner Elia Viviani and Australia’s Glenn O’Shea also sent crashing to the floor (inset). Park left hospital yesterday with concussion, a scan having shown no further injuries. Colombia are understood to have expressed disappointment with the decision of the officials — their rider and world champion Fernando Gaviria finished fourth — but there were no grounds for a protest or appeal. Yesterday Cavendish said: ‘You don’t like to see people on the floor and I felt terrible. I am really sorry for causing that. ‘It was a racing accident but I should have been looking where I was going a bit more. I apologised to Elia, who went down.’ Cavendish was more aggressive in his responses immediately after a race that saw him secure that elusive first Olympic medal. Journalists from Brazil and Holland claimed that the Tour de France sprint specialist had threatened legal action against them when he thought they had accused him of a deliberate act.