Mark Cavendish Apologizes For Crash At Rio Olympics

 

Britain’s Mark Cavendish has apologised to South Korea's Sanghoon Park after causing a crash in the final event of the men’s omnium at Rio 2016. Park had to be put in a neck brace and left the points race on a stretcher, while eventual gold medal winner Elia Viviani of Italy was also brought down in the incident.

He said “It's sad that people think I'd do something on purpose, It was my fault, the crash. I sent him a message this morning. He's all right. I felt terrible, I really did. It was my fault but it's not malicious, it's not on purpose. To even insinuate that, it's not very fair. We're racing over six days, it's a hard event. I'm just sorry I've caused him some pain really.”

Cavendish was also involved in controversy earlier in the six-race event when he indicated he had deliberately slowed down in the individual pursuit to avoid breaking Sir Bradley Wiggins' Olympic record and invoke unwanted headlines.