SHANAZE KEEPS ON FIGHTING

BRITAIN'S BMX star Shanaze Reade will refuse to change her gold-or-nothing philosophy even though it cost her a medal at her first Olympics.

The 19-year-old from Crewe gave up a certain silver when she tried to cut in ahead of Anne-Caroline Chausson as the Frenchwoman led going into the final bend.

It was a long-odds gamble which did not pay off as Reade clipped Chausson’s back wheel and hit the tarmac.

She lay still for about 20 seconds before getting up to roll her bike over the finishing line where she was relegated for her risky maneouvre, the commissaire bumping her into last place behind non-finisher Sammy Cools of Canada.

A defiant Reade said: “Why settle for silver?

“I don’t train and train as hard as I’ve done for a silver medal. It’s all about the gold or nothing.

“I’ve put absolutely everything into this and the gold was still open and like I say, it’s never over until the finish line.”

Double world champion Reade has not lost a final for three years but she had a tough time at the track perched above the Laoshan Velodrome where the British team had dominated track cycling.

Over two days’ racing she fell twice on the first bend - once in the seeding run and then in the first of three semi-final runs.

So it was unsurprising that, having started quickest, she was cautious going into that initial curve, allowing Chausson to swoop in off the outside of the track and overtake her on the inside.

She was following a line French team-mate Laetitia le Corguille took in the second semi-final run when she had overtaken Reade on the inside.

Reade narrowed Chausson’s lead before attempting and failing to pull off a similar trick on the final bend. The fall let in Le Corguille for the silver and Jill Kintner for the bronze.

Reade had been limping since her morning fall and, after the final, she revealed the extent of the injuries she has picked up in Laoshan.

“I may have done something to my hand, I’ve done something to my sciatic nerve, I’ve cut my shoulder open, I’ve done quite a few things,” Reade said.

X-rays confirmed she had not broken her hand as had been suspected but injuries are part and parcel of BMX.

No medal for Reade could make it difficult for British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford to save the BMX track he had built in Manchester to replicate the Laoshan Velodrome for Reade’s benefit.

It cost about £30,000 and he only has temporary planning permission which expires on August 29 - a substantial investment of time and money for what amounted to a total of about four minutes’ race time and no medal.

The French team, by contrast, trained on an already existing facility in Switzerland.

However, 44-year-old Brailsford ought not be troubled too much - especially as he is a hands-down winner in a ’show us your medals’ challenge.

Taken as a whole, his cyclists have been substantially more successful than any other British team at the Games with Saturday’s mountain-biking still to come.

And BMX made a good impression on its Olympic debut.

With a wildly enthusiastic commentator and deafening PA, it is close in spirit to beach volleyball - although maybe with fewer thrills but more spills.

London will love it and Reade will be back.