The semi-finalists for BMX Racing have been decided on a thrilling night of quarter-finals on the Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines track.
Amongst the women’s favourites to progress to the semi-finals are reigning Olympic Champion Bethany Shriever (GBR), Saya Sakakibara (AUS) and Alise Willoughby (USA). Amongst the men’s favourites going forward is the French trio of Joris Daudet, Romain Mahieu and Sylvain André.
The fastest 12 men and 12 women after the three-run quarter finals progress to tomorrow’s semi-finals. Riders ranked 13-20 after the quarter-finals competed in the Last Chance Qualifier races (LCQ), a one-run race of eight competitors.
And drama was ensured by Rico Bearman (NZL), Simon Marquart (SUI) and Colombia’s double Olympic Champion Mariana Pajón who left it late, going through in the LCQs.
Women: ‘The Queen of BMX’ leaves it late!
The women’s quarter-finals saw qualification for Bethany Shriever (GBR), Australia’s Saya Sakakibara (34.549-sec), the USA pair of UCI World Champion Alise Willoughby (35.459-sec) and Daleny Vaughn, the Dutch trio of Laura Smulders, Merel Smulders and Manon Veenstra. Joining them were Canada’s Molly Simpson, Switzerland’s Zoé Claessens and Nadine Aeberhard, and France’s Axelle Etienne.
In the women’s LCQ, the four who went through: Mariana Pajón (COL), Sae Hatakeyama (JPN), Malene Kejlstrup (DEN) and Gabriela Bolle Carrillo (COL).
Men: Strong French trio progress
The men’s quarter-finals saw the French trio of UCI World Champion Joris Daudet (31.692-sec), Sylvain André (31.979), and Romain Mahieu (31.472-sec) qualify.
Along with them were USA’s Kamren Larsen and Cameron Wood, Izaac Kennedy (AUS), Alfredo Jose Campo (ECU), Colombia’s Mateo Carmona Garcia and Diego Alejandro Arboleda Ospina, Great Britain’s Kye Whyte (Tokyo 2020 silver medalist), Switzerland’s Cédric Butti and Italy’s Pietro Bertagnoli.
The four to progress from the men’s Last Chance qualifier were Rico Bearman (NZL), Simon Marquart (SUI), Mauricio Molina Vergara (CHI) and Jaymio Brink (NED).
The semi-finals for the BMX Racing are on Friday 2 August, followed immediately by the finals.
Results available here