Jose Torres Gil is the new Olympic Champion in BMX Freestyle Park.
The Argentinean rider took honours in the men’s final at La Concorde in Paris with a score of 94.82. The silver medal went to Kieran Reilly (GBR) on 93.91 points and the bronze to the host country’s Anthony Jeanjean, who scored 93.76.
As for the women’s competition earlier in the afternoon, each rider had two 60-second runs, from which the best of the two scores counted.
Run 1: Jose Torres Gil scores highest
Ernests Zebolds (LAT) set the tone with a hot 86.04 run and a huge smile before Gustavo Batista de Oliveira (BRA) pulled out something even more special with a 90.2 and Jose Torres Gil (ARG) hit even greater heights with a stunning 94.82 score. Rimu Nakamura (JPN) put down a 90.35 to go into provisional second position.
The huge roar announced the run from Anthony Jeanjean, but an early mistake saw the Frenchman walk away and prepare for an all-or-nothing second run. Justin Dowell (USA) put a solid 88.35 in the bank before the defending Olympic Champion Logan Martin (AUS) went big, but crashed with just a few seconds remaining.
Marcus Christopher (USA), the second highest scoring qualifier, was on a hot run until he also crashed. It left Kieran Reilly (GBR), the highest scoring qualifier to try to top Torres Gil, but his score of 93.70, saw him slot into provisional silver medal position.
Run 2: Torres Gil seals the title
After Zebolds improved to 87.14, neither Batista de Oliveira nor Torres Gil could better their impressive first runs. Nakamura improved to 90.89 but ultimately matched his fifth place from the Tokyo Olympics.
Jeanjean thrilled the crowd with an electric run including a double backflip to take provisional silver with a score of 93.76. Dowell couldn’t match his first run, and Martin’s bad day at the office continued.
Christopher came out fighting and hit 93.11 to take fourth place. Kieran Reilly went last, knowing he was guaranteed a medal, but which colour?
The UCI World Champion put down a strong performance but fell short of the mark set by the Argentine, taking second place and bumping home rider Jeanjean into third.
The newly-crowned Olympic Champion said: “I’m very happy. I came to participate in the Olympic Games, the biggest event in the world, I was impressed. I didn’t expect to score so high from the first round so I was delighted. I’m grateful to the crowd, they gave everyone a lot of support, whether we came from America, Europe. All the work I did was so that everyone could enjoy our sport.”
Results available here