Olympics| Australia's Sakakibara wins women's BMX race gold

PARIS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Saya Sakakibara completed a perfect day when she claimed the gold medal in the women's BMX racing at the Paris Olympics on Friday.

The Australian won all three of her semifinal runs and finished several bike lengths ahead of Manon Veenstra of the Netherlands in the final. Switzerland's Zoe Claessens finished the third.

Sakakibara finished 0.723 seconds ahead of Veenstra and 0.829 seconds ahead of Claessens.

The surprise of the final was that reigning Olympic champion Bathany Shriever of Britain finished well off the pace in eighth place. Shriever went into the final after winning all of her previous races, but never recovered from a poor start in the decisive race.