Niall Monks defied the odds and medical advice to secure his first gold medal at the National Track Championships, despite suffering a broken elbow just weeks earlier.
The 24-year-old cyclist, visibly in discomfort, shared, “I still can’t really straighten it,” while stretching his right arm, which was still healing from the injury. Monks, a part-time bike mechanic and barman, won the team sprint title on Saturday, a month after crashing during a track meet in Newport, Wales. The crash, which occurred during the keirin final, left Monks fearing that his hopes for a National Championship title were dashed.
“I was sandwiched between two riders. I went down, and then my teammate came into the back of me,” Monks recalled. The following day, X-rays revealed a fracture in the radial head of his elbow. Despite the severity of the injury, Monks was determined to race. A doctor’s advice to avoid competition was clear: he should not race. However, Monks wasn’t ready to accept defeat.
“I assumed I was done as soon as I crashed,” Monks admitted. “But after a few weeks, I went to see the physio, who told me it wouldn’t make the injury worse to ride – it would just hurt a lot.” Monks tested the waters, finding that while his elbow hurt when not on the bike, the pain subsided once he was cycling.
On race day, Monks braved the pain, qualifying for the team sprint event. Despite his injury, he was able to perform in the heat, although the discomfort remained. “It only hurts if I’m flinging it about,” Monks said, pointing to his bruised shoulder, which was more painful than his elbow. “I’ve got to make sure I do my physio exercises,” he added.
In the final, Monks stepped aside to allow Lyall Craig, a rising star in Great Britain’s cycling academy, to take his place in the starting trio. The team, guided by Olympic silver medallist and Monks’s coach, Matthew Richardson, clinched gold, finishing six-tenths of a second ahead of their competitors.
“Yesterday, it didn’t feel quite like a proper national title,” Monks reflected, acknowledging his disappointment at not being able to race in the final. “But now that I think about it, the fact that I almost didn’t race makes it feel even better.”
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