BMX champ out of action

Britain's Shanaze Reade pulls out of worlds

Britain’s BMX world champion Shanaze Reade has damaged her shoulder in training, dashing her hopes of racing in the BMX World Championships in Australia next month.

Reade was sent flying while practicing on the track on May 16 after hitting a loose stone. This aggravated an old injury she got two years ago and has put her out of action for four months.

Reade, 20, was the firm favourite to take gold in the BMX event at the Beijing Olympics last year, but a crash in the final left her without a medal.

She was born in Crewe, near Manchester, to an Irish mother and Jamaican father. Her love of BMX started at the age of ten when she went round a local bike track on a bike she hired for a pound.

Her passion for cycling took off and she went on to win a number of competitions, becoming British senior women’s champion at the age of 13. She has since won the BMX World Championships twice and has also had success in track cycling, despite only taking it seriously in the last two years.

Incredibly, after just six weeks intensive training she won a gold medal at the world track championships in the women’s team sprint with Victoria Pendleton in 2007, and beat her rivals again in 2008.

Reade was also hoping to compete at elite level in mountain biking, but her injury will prevent her from taking part in the UCI mountain bike world cup in Scotland, held  June 6th to 7th.

For more on Shanaze, visit www.shanazereade.com