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Commonwealth Games 2022: Ellesse Andrews denied silver medal after bizarre ruling, cycling news

Commonwealth Games 2022: Ellesse Andrews denied silver medal after bizarre ruling, cycling news

Rather than receiving a silver medal for her efforts in the team pursuit, New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews was instead given an unusual prize — a AU$300 fine.

The Kiwi cyclist was a late addition to the New Zealand team who claimed silver in yesterday’s final at Lee Valley VeloPark, having ridden to the rescue following Ally Wollaston’s wrist injury, the NZ Herald reports.

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The highly fancied pursuit team needed four women on the start line to compete at these Commonwealth Games and, with no reserves in the squad, Andrews added to her busy schedule by filling the void.

With the team sprint her main focus on Saturday — an event in which she would later win gold — Andrews immediately dropped away from the quartet in both qualifying and the final against Australia, leaving her teammates to compete as a trio.

Michaela Drummond, Emily Shearman and Bryony Botha did a pretty good job of that, earning themselves and Andrews a silver medal that the sprint rider would have never expected before Birmingham.

And now it’s been revealed it’s one she will never get.

With her sprint duties taking obvious precedence, Andrews was missing from the medal ceremony when the Kiwis received their silver, and fell afoul of a bizarre UCI ruling.

According to an official communication released by the Commonwealth Games, Andrews has been punished for her absence with a fine of 200 Swiss francs, a loss of her silver medal and docking of any UCI points.

While the result will remain on Andrews’ record and she will still be known as a silver medalist in the team pursuit, she won’t have the shiny piece of metal to show for her efforts.

The 22-year-old will instead have to content herself with the team sprint gold she won yesterday — and any further medals the talented rider claims in her three individual events.

She told TVNZ she was not fussed about missing out.

“I’m really glad I could help them continue their race,” she said.

“I’m really really glad that they were able to get off the line.

“The three girls are the ones that did the work so I’m really proud they were able to get up there and get their silver medal.”

This article originally appeared on the NZ Herald and was reproduced with permission

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Sports

Michael Masi death threats, abuse, interview, championship race, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen

Michael Masi death threats, abuse, interview, championship race, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen

Axed Formula One race director Michael Masi Sunday revealed he was bombarded with “vile” abuse and death threats after his stunning call that cost Lewis Hamilton an eighth world title.

The 44-year-old was removed from the high-profile job over his management of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year and quit the sport’s governing body FIA this month to return home to Australia.

I have told The Daily Telegraph he feared for his life after the sequence of events that led to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen passing Hamilton to deprive the Mercedes star of another crown.

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“There were some dark days,” Masi said in his first substantive interview since.

“And absolutely, I felt like I was the most hated man in the world. I got death threats. People saying, they were going to come after me and my family.

“I still remember walking down the street in London a day or two later. I thought I was OK until I started looking over my shoulder,” he added.

“I was looking at people wondering if they were going to get me.” Masi called in the safety car for the final lap in Abu Dhabi, then controversially allowed the backmarkers between race leader Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves.

That led to a one-lap shoot-out between the Briton and the Dutchman, who with fresh tires on his Red Bull car had a huge advantage which he exploited to pick off Hamilton and seal the title.

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Michael Masi, removed as Formula One race director over his management of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year, left The FIA, the sport's governing body. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)
Michael Masi, removed as Formula One race director over his management of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year, left The FIA, the sport’s governing body. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)Source: AFP

Mercedes and Red Bull had both put pressure on Masi to make decisions which would have helped their driver, with the former left incensed as they believed he followed their rivals’ suggestions.

They threatened legal action with Hamilton so disillusioned there were fears he would walk away from the sport.

Masi can’t talk about the decision due to non-disclosure agreements with the FIA, the newspaper reported, but he said the following months were hellish.

“I was confronted with hundreds of messages,” he said.

“And they were shocking. Racist, abusive, vile, they called me every name under the sun. And there were death threats.

“And they kept on coming. Not just on my Facebook but also on my LinkedIn, which is supposed to be a professional platform for business. It was the same kind of abuse.”

Michael Masi opened up on the ordeal. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

The Australian said he tried to ignore them, but they impacted his mental health.

“I didn’t go and talk to a professional. With the benefit of hindsight, I probably should have,” he said, adding that the FIA ​​was aware of the abuse, “but I think I downplayed it all to everyone including them”.

Masi decided to leave the FIA ​​a fortnight ago after three years as Formula 1 race director and safety delegate following his appointment after the sudden passing of Charlie Whiting in 2019.

“It took me a while to process it all,” he said of the Abu Dhabi fallout. “But at the end of the day I thought it was best for me to come back home and be close to my support network.” Since the Abu Dhabi race, the FIA ​​announced measures to ease the pressure on the race director and also altered the mode of communicating with him.

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Entertainment

Colin Farrell had ‘terrifying’ panic attacks filming Thirteen Lives

Colin Farrell had 'terrifying' panic attacks filming Thirteen Lives

Colin Farrell didn’t have a great time filming Thirteen Lives.

“Terrifying, in a word. Terrifying,” the Irish actor told Entertainment Tonight at the film’s premiere Thursday night while describing the experience, reported Page Six.

The Ron Howard-directed movie recounts the real-life 2018 rescue of a dozen young boys and their football coach who were trapped in the flooded Tham Luang cave in Thailand.

Farrell, 46, confessed to feeling particularly frightened filming extreme underwater scenes.

“It was scary. I’m not a great swimmer anyway, not that we were swimming, not that we were treading water — we had to stay on the surface — but they built a really impressive network of caves,” the In Bruges star shared.

“It was about four or five different caves that were based on the topography of the caves, the Tham Luang caves in Thailand, and they filled them full of water, and we’d go down and there was no up.”

Farrell, who plays rescue diver John Volanthen, added that not being able to see the water’s surface was horrifying and “just wreaks havoc on [the] mind.” He even shared that he experienced panic attacks underwater, which he called a “new experience.”

However, the True Detective alum explained that all the underwater scenes did not improve his aquatic abilities, adding that being a rescue diver is “a very particular skill set.”

Farrell was not the only star on set who struggled with the intense scenes.

His co-star Viggo Mortensen, who plays real-life hero Richard Stanton, shared that he, too, panicked at one point while filming.

“All of a sudden I couldn’t breathe,” the Green Book star, 63, told People. “It seemed like a long time, but it was only a matter of seconds. I panicked.”

Although he managed to remember his training and switch the mouthpiece to the oxygen tank, Mortensen acknowledged that “it’s not that complicated, but at the moment, it’s hard to think clearly.”

The movie also stars Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman and Paul Gleeson.

Thirteen Lives is on Amazon Prime Video from Friday, August 5.

This article originally appeared on Page Six and was reproduced here with permission

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