Shanaze Reade pulls out of this weekend's BMX world championships

BMX world champion Shanaze Reade will not defend her title in Copenhagen this weekend as she seeks to recover from a wrist injury ahead of next month’s Olympic test event at the Olympic track in Stratford.

Reade, aged 22, three times a world champion in BMX and twice on the track in partnership with Victoria Pendleton in the team sprint, has unfinished business at the Olympics.

She had been one of Britain’s big gold medal hopes at Beijing three years ago but crashed in the final as she sought to catch the woman who won the gold medal, Anne-Caroline Chausson of France.

The rider, who comes from Crewe, recently had surgery on a wrist problem, but has aggravated that injury, according to a statement from British Cycling.

"Preparing for the test event is the priority for my Olympic ambitions and I don't want to do anything to jeopardise being ready for that," she explained.

"It was a tough choice to make as obviously I wanted to go out there and defend my world title."

The Olympic test event takes place on 19 and 20 August.