Hannah Roberts of the US tops freestyle BMX qualifying as defending Olympic champ fails to advance

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PARIS (AP) — Five-time world champion Hannah Roberts of the United States topped qualifying in the freestyle BMX competition at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, while reigning gold medalist Charlotte Worthington of Britain failed to advance to the finals.

Roberts, who finished second to Worthington in the discipline’s debut at the Tokyo Games, had the best single score of 91.80 points and the best two-run average of 91.45, sending her into Wednesday’s finals as the No. 1 seed. She was joined by American teammate Perris Benegas, who had the unenviable first qualifying position but wound up fourth.

In the men’s competition, Britain’s Kieran Reilly was the top qualifier with a two-run average of 91.21 points. Marcus Christopher of the U.S. was second at 89.48 and defending champion Logan Martin of Australia third with 89.39.

While the two-run average is used in the qualifying rounds, only the riders’ best of two 60-second runs count in the finals.

Just three of 12 riders are eliminated in qualifying, and one of them was Worthington, who became the first woman to land a 360 backflip in competition at the Tokyo Games. That propelled her past the heavily favored Roberts to a surprising gold medal.

Tokyo bronze medalist Nikita Ducarroz was another of the three that failed to advance.

Roberts had no such trouble on a hot, sunny afternoon at the urban sports park at Place de la Concorde. She landed a 360 tuck no-hander bar spin to open her ride, and a stretched-out superman tailwhip later, which had American BMX coach Ryan Nyquist cheering by the end. Roberts followed with a strong second run highlighted by a stylish 360 tailwhip.

Her biggest competition in the finals could come from the Chinese duo of Deng Wen and Sun Jiaqi, who finished second and third in qualifying. They represent a big leap for China after the nation went unrepresented at the Tokyo Games.

Reilly was the only rider in the men’s competition to do the difficult front flip, the reigning world champion landing it in each of his rides. That allowed him to easily secure the coveted No. 1 seed for the Olympic finals.