New Zealander fined 200 CHF and denied silver medal at Commonwealth Games after missing ceremony

Cycling's governing body fined New Zealand track cyclist Ellesse Andrews 200 Swiss francs and denied her the Commonwealth Games team pursuit silver medal she won, after the 22-year-old failed to attend the medal ceremony for the event. 

Originally, Andrews didn't intend on competing in the team pursuit at the Lee Valley VeloPark in London, but when Ally Wollaston injured her wrist and New Zealand didn't have a reserve, she stepped in as Wollaston's replacement. 

With the team sprint Andrews' main focus, though, her involvement in the team pursuit simply equated to starting the race with the team before completing just two laps and then dropping away. She did this in both qualifying and the final, because it is compulsory for four riders to start the event. 

While she left Michaela Drummond, Emily Shearman and Bryony Botha to ultimately compete as a trio, they still ended up coming second to Australia. An England team of comprised of Laura Kenny, Josie Knight, Maddie Leech and Sophie Lewis finished in the bronze medal position. 

Despite dropping away, Andrews was still entitled to the silver medal because she took to the start line in the final.  

However, she relinquished that entitlement by deciding not to attend the medal ceremony, falling foul of Commonwealth Games and UCI rules. As well as picking up a 200 Swiss franc fine and being denied her silver medal, Andrews had any UCI points she would otherwise have obtained docked from her record, too. 

Fortunately, this didn't seem to faze her too much.

"I'm really glad I could help them continue their race... I'm really really glad that they were able to get off the line," Andrews told New Zealand outlet 1News.

"With the team sprint being our priority, I didn't present to the podium because we had our warm-up so that means I don't get a medal. But, the three girls are the ones that did the work so I'm really proud they were able to get up there and get their silver medal."

Indeed, the Kiwi softened the blow considerably by picking up the gold medal in both the team sprint and individual sprint.