A nervous but thrilling first day of men’s Olympic BMX racing yesterday saw most of the favorites for the gold survive the Laoshan track to qualify for the semi-finals.
But it was American Mike Day who came out tops from the 16 men who, after four heats of three runs, go into today’s semi-finals.
Day, a 23-year-old from California, showed that you don’t have to be close to the ground on the low BMX bikes to make a difference.
At 1.91m tall, he was the only rider to win all three of his quarter-final runs, each one composed of an eight-man field, meaning he finished with a perfect three points.
The only other riders to get close were Australian Jared Graves and world champion Maris Strombergs of Latvia — both of whom won two of their three runs to finish on four and seven points respectively.
After the entire men’s field had battled individually over two-run time trials in a bid to gain one of the coveted places on the inside of the track, the three-run heats gave a truer glimpse of what BMX is all about.
And some of those who had made special efforts to claim an historic Olympic gold for their sport found out to their cost.
Among the big names to fall victim to the hidden hazards on the 370m track was Luke Madill of Australia, who had famously built a replica of the Olympic BMX track in a bid to boost his chances of a medal.
Madill’s hopes came crashing down, quite literally, when he got sucked into a pile-up which took down France’s former two-time world champion Thomas Allier, who also did not qualify.
Argentina’s Ramiro Marino was also among the riders who tasted the dirt when he got caught out on the first tight bend.
He was painfully thrown off his bike, which ended up going over the other side of the safety barrier.
With a maximum of 20 points in his heat, he finished last of his eight-man field over the three runs and failed to qualify.
American Kyle Bennett, meanwhile, lived up to his nickname of “Butter,” although it was more for his slippery end-of-race crash than for his smooth riding.
The three-time world champion was left hurting from the pile-up and came limping home in eighth place, given as a “did not finish.”
But after picking up a second then a fourth place finish on his first two runs, his accumulated tally of 14 points allowed him to qualify for the semis.
It was later revealed he had dislocated his shoulder, but the 28-year-old’s team said he will start.
The cosmopolitan last 16 will be composed of three Americans, two Australians, a New Zealander, a Colombian, two Latvians, two Dutchmen, one Italian, Swiss, French and Argentine rider and a South African.
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