Paris 2024 Olympics - BMX Racing - Men, Quarterfinals Run 3 - Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines BMX Stadium, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France - August 01, 2024. Sylvain Andre of France in action during heat 3. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
PARIS (Reuters) - France's BMX riders ruled the ramps in the men's BMX racing quarter-finals at the Paris Games on Thursday, with three top French riders going through to the semi-finals on Friday.
Carried along by a jubilant home crowd at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines stadium, Sylvain Andre, Romain Mahieu and Joris Daudet won the three top scores, sparking hope that the French will finally win the Olympic medals that have so long eluded them.
"The cheers of the crowd pushed me forward," said Andre, 31.
The French have dominated BMX racing in recent decades, amassing 50 gold medals at world championships since 1982, and Daudet and Mahieu hold first and second place in the UCI ranking.
But at the Olympics they have only bagged two medals - both by female riders - since the sport's debut in Beijing in 2008.
Andre, who finished fourth on his Olympic debut in Tokyo, remained cautious despite completing each of his runs in well under 32 seconds at Saint-Quentin.
"It went well but it is not over yet," he said.
With Dutch rider Niek Kimmann unable to defend his Tokyo 2021 Olympic gold due to illness, the French will face Tokyo silver medalist Kye Whyte of Britain and Tokyo bronze medalist Carlos Ramirez of Colombia, who came in at 10th and 16th place, respectively.
Whyte told The Telegraph on Wednesday that if the French are to win Olympic medals, now is the time.
"With them being in their home country and right now they have the world champ, the World Cup series winner ...the depth across the field is frightening," he said.
Hot on the wheels of the French come three first-time Olympians, Kamren Larsen and Cameron Wood of the U.S. and Australia's Izaac Kennedy, who took fourth through sixth spots.
A COUPLE'S MEDAL DREAMS
The women's race will also have a French flavour as Mahieu's girlfriend Saya Sakakibara of Australia topped the scoreboard, keeping hopes alive for the French-Australian couple hope to both win a medal at the finals on Friday.
"We have been sharing wins at world cup rounds over the past two years, so hopefully we can make that a medal," Sakakibara told Reuters earlier this week.
Sakakibara, who won each of her heats in around 34.5 seconds, faces a formidable challenge from Tokyo gold medalist Bethany Shriever of Britain and Alise Willoughby of the US, who won silver in Rio 2016.
Sakakibara, Shriever and Willoughby each scored three points, well ahead of the next quarter-finalists, which include the Dutch Smulders sisters Laura and Merel.
Mariana Pajon of Colombia - who won silver in Tokyo 2021 and gold in Rio 2016 and London 2012 - came in at 14th place.
She told Reuters earlier this week she had had three elbow surgeries last year but was still having trouble.
"When I started the season, I wasn't quite sure if I could make it through qualifying. I'm just happy to be here, she said.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
