Olympic Games: Cavendish admits blame for Omnium crash

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The points race in the men's Olympic Games omnium was marked by a crash that saw Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) inadvertently taking out the front wheel of Sanghoon Park and sending the Korean crashing. Elia Viviani (Italy) and Glenn O'Shea were both unable to avoid Park and also fell heavily onto the boards.

As a result, the race was momentarily neutralised with Park escorted from the track on a stretcher. Viviani recovered to claim the gold medal ahead of Cavendish while O'Shea was 14th in the sixth and final event of the omnium and ended up in seventh overall.

"It was my fault," Cavendish said of the accident. "I should've looked where I was going a bit more. I hope he's all right. I apologised to Elia, who went down."

Dutch journalist Thijs Zonneveld spoke with Cavendish after the points race had concluded and explained in a series of tweets that he asked him 'whether he should have been DQ'd for his move'.

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Media src: https://twitter.com/thijszonneveld/status/765309969197588482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Media caption: Viviani absolved Cavendish of causing the crash, explaining that Park's positioning was off.

"It's not his fault. The Korean guy was halfway on his wheel to the right, normally you stay on the wheel. Cav was in the front and changed direction so it's all normal. It's a normal crash on the track," Viviani said. "For sure it was a bad moment in the race."

"When I saw the Korean guy in front of me go down I thought 'No chance. I'm going down'. My body was ok, I got back on the bike," he added. "My adrenaline went up so I was really ready. I saw the screen, I saw I was the leader of the omnium and I couldn't think."

Speaking with Australian television station Seven, O'Shea explained it was a 'bit of bad luck' and the crash didn't affect his overall position as he 'didn't have the legs anyway'.

Media type: Twitter
Media src: https://twitter.com/7olympics/status/765299849667366912
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