Spectators were left stunned when Olympic omnium champion Matt Walls suddenly appeared, sent spiralling into the air and landing in the front seating section of the Lee Valley velodrome along with his bike last night.

Walls had to be treated for injuries in the stands for 40 minutes – as the session was suspended and the arena cleared of fans – after being sent flying in a multi-rider pile-up on the final lap of the 15km scratch race qualifier.

Two other riders, the Isle of Man’s Matt Bostock, who had to be taken out of the arena on a stretcher, and Canadian Derek Gee, who also nearly landed in the crowd, ended in hospital too.

One man in the crowd also needed treatment for cuts to his arm and was taken out of the arena bloodied and in a wheelchair, while a young girl also received attention.

All three riders were later discharged, Walls miraculously escaping with just a few stitches needed in his forehead.

The crash, which ended the morning session early, left serious questions over the safety of both riders and spectators at the 2012 Olympic velodrome, as an inquest into the accident began.

In the day’s second session, Australia’s Matt Richardson, Georgia Baker, Kristina Clonan and para-cyclists Jess Gallagher and Caitlin Ward won gold in dominant fashion.

The extraordinary quadruple triumph, plus a bronze from the para-cycling duo, Beau Wootton and sighted pilot Luke Zaccaria came as Adelaide cyclist Matt Glaetzer was stripped of a bronze medal by the judges.

Just 24 hours after being flattened in a dramatic keirin crash, Glaetzer thought he’d edged Scot Jack Carlin in the bronze medal sprint decider but was relegated after race commissaries decided he’d used unfair contact as the pair jostled side-by-side.

Glaetzer, who revealed he’d had to have his elbow cut open to get the splinters out after his previous night’s crash and reckoned “the right side of my body is just burnt”, was adamant he’d won one of the best medals of his career fairly.

“But it’s a bummer to end on a downer like this,” said team performance boss Jesse Korf.

“I’m just feeling for Matt – he’s shown incredible resilience and has raced with so much heart and pride.”

In the final, Richardson overcame a host of setbacks before outracing Trinidad’s newly-crowned keirin champion Nicholas Paul 2-0 to claim gold.

In the lead-up, the West Australian had to twice win a last-race decider and, when locked 1-1 in his quarter-final with Malaysian Shah Sahrom, had an agonising wait following the crash as his decider was delayed, leaving him the serious handicap of racing the semi just 10 minutes later.

“I was struggling,” he admitted. “But the more time I got, the better I became.”

But Georgia Baker had a more straightforward path to gold in the 100-lap points race, winning four of the 10 sprints.

“Everyone’s going crazy, winning gold. It’s the new era, everyone’s really excited and feeding off one another,” beamed Baker.

– AAP