By Dave Skretta
MONTIGNY-LE-BRETONNEUX, France (AP) — Saya Sakakibara won the gold medal in the women’s BMX race at the Paris Olympics on Friday night, shortly after her partner Romain Mahieu took bronze to complete a French sweep of the men’s race.
Sakakibara beat American rider Alise Willoughby to the first corner and was never tested again, cruising through the jumps and bumps to the gold medal. Manon Veenstra of the Netherlands took silver, and Zoe Claessens of Switzerland won bronze.
Willoughby, the three-time world champion, was shuffled back after the first corner and finished sixth. Bethany Shriever of Britain, the reigning Olympic champion, was never in the medal mix and finished last in the eight-rider finals.
The opening heats Friday night, which concluded just as a thunderstorm drenched the covered BMX track adjacent to National Velodrome of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, were dominated by the three riders considered the medal favorites.
That would be Sakakibara, Shriever and Willoughby, who has won just about everything in her career but Olympic gold.
If there was another favorite, it was Mariana Pajon of Colombia — and she had a much more difficult time.
The two-time Olympic champion and reigning silver medalist failed to finish better than fifth in any of her three heats. That left Pajon to race the dreaded last-chance qualifier. She won, but the extra race may have taken a bit out of her legs.
Shriever and Sakakibara swept each of their semifinal runs, but Willoughby found herself in trouble.
She finished second to Sakakibara in her first run before getting shuffled back to seventh in her second, leaving Willoughby the first rider on the outside with one semifinal to go. She was solidly in second until the final straight when Zoe Claessens pulled up next to her, but Willoughby used a bike-throw at the line to take second place in a photo finish.
That helped to give her the points necessary to make the eight-rider field for the finals.
It came at the expense of Pajon, who tied with Axelle Etienne of France for the last spot but lost the tiebreaker.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
