Oisin O'Callaghan has seen his chance of retaining his downhill junior world title go up in smoke after he crashed in the final today at the Worlds in Italy.
The Irish rider, who won the junior world title in Austria last October, claimed 5th today and had to settle for finishing behind four riders he had beaten in qualifying on Friday.
During that qualification round, Ireland's O'Callaghan was fastest of the 54 riders in the junior category. That result, combined with his Worlds win and two World Cup victories last year, meant he went into today's final in Val di Sole as a red hot favourite.
However, the margins are tiny in downhill, especially at this level, and his crash effectively wiped out his hopes; lost his front wheel just exiting a wooded section where the surface change.
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His ability to still finish in 5th place today, even after his mishap, strongly suggest he would have retained his world title again if he'd had has clear run.
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I was 100% fucussed and fully committed to retain the 🌈jersey .Despite the top 3 splits and in the green it’s was that inconsistency leaving the woods between dry and wet that had the front wheel washing out …5th with a crash but live to race World cup nxt week pic.twitter.com/hdRVJ7csXI
— oisin o callaghan (@ois_ocallaghan) August 29, 2021
The gold medal was won by Canada’s Jackson Gladstone, who had been 2nd in O’Callaghan in qualifying on Friday, 1.3 seconds down on the Irishman.
Today Jordan Williams of Great Britain took the silver medal, at 1.812 seconds, and Lachlan Stevens-McNab of New Zealand claimed the bronze at 3.56 seconds.
Another of the British riders, Ethan
Craik, was 3th at 4.848, with O’Callaghan next; in 5th place at 6.218 seconds.
O’Callaghan was the only Irish rider in
the junior men’s race, though Ireland had several riders in the elite men’s
title race, won by Greg Minnaar of South Africa.
Jacob Dickson was best placed of the
Irish, in 25th place at 10.507 seconds. Christopher Cumming was 57th, at24.989,
and Henry Kerr was 67th at 40.115.
Junior Men Final: Top 20
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