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 didn’t attend 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.
This article originally appeared on the NZ Herald and was reproduced with permission
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