Olympics Cycling BMX results: Men’s individual quarterfinal
By Brad Weiss
The 2016 Rio Olympics cycling competition continued on Thursday, as the men took to the course for their BMX individual quarterfinals.
The BMX event of the 2016 Rio Olympics cycling schedule is in full swing, and on Thursday, 32 men took to the course for the individual quarterfinals. BMX is the newest Olympic sport in cycling, having made its debut in 2008 Beijing Olympics. Since then, one man has dominated the event, and he was back at it on Thursday.
Maris Strombergs won the gold medal in BMX in both 2008 and 2012, and was looking for the three-peat in Rio. However, Strombergs could not make it out of his heat during the quarterfinals, and has been eliminated from competition.
During the seeding run, France’s Joris Daudet owned the fastest time, finishing in a blazing time of 34.61s. Switzerland’s David Graf’s time of 34.67s was second best, while Australian and 2012 London Olympic silver medalist Sam Wiloughby was third.
The quarterfinals consisted of three runs, with the top four cyclists from each heat qualifying automatically for the semifinals.
In Heat 1, Daudet got out to blazing start, finishing first in the Run 1. However, he could not finish the other two runs, and was eliminated from contention. The heat was owned by the Netherlands, as two cyclists from the country, Jelle van Gorkom and Niek Kimman, qualified for the semifinals.
Heat 2 saw Strombergs get eliminated, but also Switzerland’s David Graf move on. Graf had the second-fastest time in the preliminary round, and appears in the mix for a medal in Rio. Canada’s Tory Nyhaug had the best score off all the cyclists in heat 2.
The third heat was arguably the toughest, as two medalists from the 2012 London Olympics were in it. Sam Wiloughby, the Aussie who won silver in London had the best score of the heat, while Columbia’s Carlos Oquendo also qualified to move on.
Next: 50 greatest Summer Olympians in history
The last heat saw two Americans qualify, joining Nicholas Long, who qualified in Heat 1. Connor Fields and Corben Sharrah took second and third in the heat, respectively, as all three Americans are now in the semifinals. Australia’s Anthony Dean had the lowest amount of points in the heat.
The semifinals will take place on Friday, with Heat 1 action starting at 12:38pm ET.