Adrien Niyonshuti’s bid to make history at the 2016 Rio Olympics cycling road race ended prematurely after he failed to finish the 236km competition which was won by Belgian Greg van Avermaet on Saturday evening in 6:19:05.
Top seven1. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) 6:10:052. Jakob Fuglslang (Den) 6:10:053. Rafael Majika (Pol) 6:10:104. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) 6:10:275. Olivier Rodriguez Joachim (Spa) 6:10:276. Fabio Aru (Ita) 6:10:277. Louis Meintjes (RSA) 6:10:27
Adrien Niyonshuti’s bid to make history at the 2016 Rio Olympics cycling road race ended prematurely after he failed to finish the 236km competition which was won by Belgian Greg van Avermaet on Saturday evening in 6:19:05.
Denmark’s Jakob Fuglsang took silver and Poland’s Rafal Majka bronze as Geraint Thomas, Vincenzo Nibali, Sergio Henao and Richie Porte all fell on a downhill section of a very tough road race course.
The 29-year old Niyoshuti, who was Rwanda’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony on Friday night, was involved in an accident in the first 60km hence bowing out of the highly competitive race.
Tour de France reigning champion, Chris Froome of Britain, who was the favourite to win gold, struggled throughout the day. The Kenya-born Briton will be hoping to make amends as he goes for gold again in Wednesday’s time trial, hoping to better his bronze at London 2012.
According to Team Rwanda Press attaché, Fidele Kajugiro Sebalinda, Niyoshuti first suffered mechanical problems with his breaks before getting involved in a crash that ended his journey before the 70km mark.
The South Africa-based rider was representing Rwanda after replacing Janvier Hadi, who had qualified during last year’s All African Games, on grounds that the former stood high chances of at least finishing the race that attracted the best of the best in international cycling.
The 2013 Tour du Rwanda stage five winner, Louis Meintjes from the Republic of South Africa, finished in 7th position clocking 6:10:27—he was the only African rider in the top 20 finishers.
Meanwhile, in swimming, Joannah Umurungi also failed to make the cut in the women’s 100m butterfly heats after finishing 44th out of 45 competitors, using 1:11:92. She only finished ahead of Nada Mohammed Arakji from Qatar, who clocked 1:18.86.
The 20-year old Umurungi, together with Egypt’s Farida Osman, who qualified for the semi-finals and Jannah Sonnenschein of Mozambique, were the only African swimmers in this particular competition.
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