Shanaze Reade’s pursuit of gold began and ended with a fall. Britain’s BMX world champion crashed so spectacularly at the first bend in her opening semi-final heat that it looked as though only a stretcher would get her off the track.

But as Fred Astaire would have counselled, she picked herself up, dusted herself off and navigated the humps and twists of the Laoshan circuit in the remaining heats to reach the final. And then she fell again.