Kiwi cyclist Devon Briggs is ruing a training accident that has already cost a teammate his spot at the Paris Paralympics and left him lucky to reach the startline at all.
In his first Paralympics, Briggs, 20, has finished in the C3 3000m individual pursuit at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, missing out on the bronze-medal rideoff by less than one-tenth of a second.
Earlier this month, he was involved in a crash that left him in a Swiss hospital with pelvic injuries that threatened his Paralympics debut. Fellow cyclist Ben Westenberg was eventually ruled out of the event with ongoing concussion symptoms.
The track cyclist has overcome a training crash to reach the startline. (Source: TVNZ)
"I just gave it everything I had," Briggs told TVNZ. "About six days, I was lying in a hospital bed, not knowing if I'd be here or not, after a pretty bad accident in Grenchen.
"To be here and become a Paralympian is amazing. We had a pretty had crash — I broke my sacrum, dislocated my coccyx [tailbone] and got a big haematoma on my right leg, so ended up in hospital for five days.
"With the help of everybody in our team, I'm able to be here and race."
Briggs was born with bilateral talipes, also known as 'club feet', that saw him bullied at school, but took up cycling at the age of 10. Over the past three years, he has reached the podium nine times at para cycling world championships, capturing the kilo time trial crow at Rio de Janeiro this year.
The accident has proved a setback to his goal of claiming two gold medals at Paris.
"I'm not that recovered at all," he said. "Everything's still a bit tender and sore after the crash.
"Just to great back on the bike and overcoming the odds is pretty good for me.
"It's definitely not the Paralympics I imagined. Everything has ups and downs, I wanted a bit of a smoother training camp going into this, but things happen for a result or not,.
"We've dealt with everything as best we could and I'm here racing."
Briggs insists the misadventure has brought the NZ para cycling team closer together.
"It's really made us support each other in any which way we can to get us on the startline."
Briggs will contest the kilo qualifying on Saturday, before heading outdoors for the road race and time trial later in the programme.
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