Ryan Henderson's BMX world championship debut ends with broken ankle

Ryan Henderson bowed out at the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships in Abu Dhabi after fracturing his ankle during his run.

The Belfast rider was representing Ireland in the BMX Men's Freestyle Park Qualifying, making history as the first Irish rider to compete at that level.

He was selected for Ireland after an impressive tenth-place finish at the European Championships in August.

During his qualifying session, a slow rotation on a double flip caused Henderson’s foot to slip off the pedal on landing, leading to the injury.

Henderson said: "Bit unfortunate about what's happened today. We were feeling good, we had a good run up to this.

"Obviously I was away in France a couple of weeks ago and we got used to the size of the ramps, we drilled a lot of tricks that we were going to put down on the run and we felt like we covered all aspects of things. My fitness is probably the best it has ever been and we were dealing with the heat quite well.

"So, I just started off, obviously with the double flip I just went slightly too fast and rotated a bit too slow, so it was just like a small error and when I landed my feet blew off the pedals, like slapped my foot off the ground which basically broke my ankle.

"At that point it didn’t really feel [broken], I just kinda felt like I tweaked it. Obviously, my adrenaline is going, I’m still in the zone wanting to do the run so I continue, and I did a few other tricks and when I came back around to do something on a spine as soon as I catch the bike again, I land a wee bit heavy on the ramp and my ankle just gives way.

"It’s a bit frustrating but we’ll come back stronger. We’re down now but we’re not out. We’ll get home, get recovered and then get back to work."