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Jody Cundy of Britain reacts after being given a DNF (Did Not Finish) by judges in men's individual C4-5 1km Cycling Time Trial final at London 2012 Paralympic Games in London, Aug. 31, 2012. (Xinhua/Wu Wei)
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LONDON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- British cyclist Jody Cundy apologized for his outburst after his disqualification from the London Paralympic individual C4/5 1km time trial here on Friday.
"I'd like to apologize to the IPC, UCI and all the friends, spectators and people that were here today that witnessed it," said Cundy, 34, who made a public apology after his outburst of anger when he heard the result.
Cundy's back wheel slipped after he started the race. Holding his hand up in the air, Cundy pulled off the track and went back into the start gate to wait for a chance of restart.
Argued with UCI officials and commissars, Cundy's coach Chris Furber returned with empty hands.
"The next thing I saw in the scoreboard was 'DNF' next to my name. My coach came back and gave me throat signal, and said that was it," said Cundy who shouted out some filthy words and smashed a bottle of water onto the floor.
"I had nowhere to go. I didn't know what to do. But just pure anger and frustration was all coming out all at the same time."
Furber insisted that they put Jody's bike in the gates as normally do but the gates didn't release properly. He counted it as a mishap which requires a restart.
However, both the gate commissar and start commissar said the gate release was fine, so the chief commissar ruled that there wasn't a mishap. Furber asked UCI to review the TV footage but was refused.
Louis Barbeau, the UCI technical delegate, called the incident as a "very unfortunate" and "sad" situation. Barbeau claimed that nothing went wrong with the gate.
According to Barbeau, only three conditions represent a recognized mishap: either a puncture, a fall or the breakage of an essential part of the bicycle. Without these there cannot be a restart.
"Our interpretation is that the rider put too much weight on the front wheel, and as a result the back (wheel) slipped," analyzed Barbeau.
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