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Reade clips Chausson to crash out
"I'm hurting. I think I might have broken my hand and I'm cut all over."
Shanaze Reade
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British world champion Shanaze Reade missed out on a medal in the BMX cycling in Beijing after crashing in the closing stages of the final.
Reade was in second place and looked sure of at least a silver medal when she went for broke on the final bend and tried to overtake leader Anne-Caroline Chausson.
She only succeeded in clipping the Frenchwoman's back wheel and hit the deck.
Chausson stayed up and went to take gold in a time of 35.976 seconds - the fastest of the day.
Chausson's team-mate Laetitia Le Corguille claimed the silver, with American Jill Kintner third.
Reade said: "I'm hurting. I think I might have broken my hand and I'm cut all over.
Best shot
"I'm only 19, there's so much more to come from me as an athlete. I feel like I might not want to see my bike for a while.
"I just caught the back wheel and went over. But I put everything into this race.
"I've fallen off and got back up, I've fallen off and got back up. I gave it my heart and everything, but today it wasn't good enough.
"I gave it the best shot I had and I didn't have any more.''
The event was making its debut in the Olympics and Reade had started as the favourite for the inaugural title.
However, she didn't have the greatest of competitions throughout - her final crash was her third in six runs over the course this week.
A fall in Wednesday's seeding run did not prove costly and the Briton also recovered after a first-race fall in the three-race semi-final series.
However, there was to be no second chance in the one-off final.
In the men's event, Latvian world champion Maris Strombergs took gold ahead of American rivals Mike Day and Donny Robinson.
