Olympian, 50, dies after bike crash during race | News World

Certainly one of Japan’s most successful cyclists has died aged 50.

Toshiaki Fushimi was racing within the Matsusaka Keirin tournament in Matsusaka, a town in Mie Prefecture, when he crashed on Saturday.

While making his way from the back of the pack, the Olympic silver medallist was forced to swerve after riders ahead of him collided.

He crashed into a security barrier and suffered fractures to his cervical vertebrae, the fragile a part of the spine within the neck, and skull.

Fushimi was taken to hospital but died this morning at 10.15am, the Japan Keirin Autorace Foundation (JKA), which governs the game, said.

Speaking ahead of the race, Fushimi said he felt a ‘strong determination’ to make it to the S-class final of the Matsusaka Keirin.

‘The ultimate race might be a troublesome one,’ he said in a YouTube video posted by Matsusaka Keirin on Friday, after winning several races that day.

‘But I just want to offer it my all in order that I even have no regrets.’

Fushimi, from Fukushima Prefecture, made his skilled keirin debut in 1995, occurring to win 619 of the two,423 races he competed in.

He won the highest KEIRIN Grand Prix twice, in 2001 and 2007, and bagged five G1 titles.

Fushimi represented Japan on the 2004 Athens Olympics, winning a silver in the lads’s team sprint with Tomohiro Nagatsuka and Masaki Inoue.

After not racing for 4 years, Fushimi staged a comeback in May on the Hiratsuka G1 Japan Championship.

Cyclists vow to ‘work hard’ in honour of dead teammate

Keirin, Japanese for ‘racing track’, sees riders tailing behind a pacer on a motorised electric bike who step by step quickens over three laps.

Once there’s just 700m or so left, the pacer leaves the track and the cyclists, called sprinters, then race as fast as they will to the finish line.

JKA chairman Hiroshi Kido said: ‘It is really heartbreaking that he lost his life in an accident during a race.

‘We are going to reconfirm our safety measures and thoroughly ensure fair and protected races.’

Keirin racer Yudai Nitta told reporters that he had called Fushimi his friend since school and thought of him his mentor.

He said: ‘He was the one who taught me what it means to find a way to take part in the Olympics.

‘He also taught me the right way to behave when competing as a keirin racer.Fushimi was someone who all the time sought results.

‘Those of us who’re left behind wish to respond by producing results. I believe that may make him blissful.’

While Nitta was nervous about Fushimi’s fall, his death not being within the morning papers put him comfy.

‘We were saying that even when he was injured, his life was not at risk,’ he said.

‘…So after I heard [he had died] after the race, I used to be really shocked.’

Shoko Inoue, who raced with Fushimi on Japan’s national keirin team, said he had long looked as much as Fushimi.

‘He was very serious and had a solid way of pondering, so there have been times after I was concerned about him,’ he said on the press conference.

‘All that we who’re left can do is figure hard, and we’ve no selection but to point out him that we are able to do this.’

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