GB's Charlotte Worthington wins history-making gold in first ever Olympic BMX freestyle competition
GB’s Charlotte Worthington wins first ever BMX freestyle Olympic gold with history-making trick, America’s Hannah Roberts claims silver, Switzerland’s Nikita Ducarroz wins bronze.
Cycling BMX Freestyle
Charlotte Worthington completed a backflip 360 - the first time the trick has ever been performed in women’s competition - which blew away the Ariake Sports Park, and was enough to beat a near-perfect first run from three-time world champion Hannah Roberts, who finished in second. Switzerland's Nikita Ducarroz just pipped Roberts' American team-mate Perris Benegas to the bronze medal.
Worthington had tried the new trick on the first run but fell, so it was all or nothing on the second run. The 25-year-old landed the history-making trick and threw in a front flip too finishing with a flair for good measure. Worthington scored a massive 97.50. GB has now won medals in all three BMX events so far at Tokyo 2020 with gold from Beth Shriever and Kye White's silver in the racing discipline.
Roberts thought she had done enough in the first run, throwing her bike down in relief on its completion, scoring a huge 96.10 but it wasn't enough this time.
Ducarroz, who struggled with anxiety until she took up BMX, scored 89.20 to Benegas' 88.50, to come away with the bronze medal.
Worthington, 25, from Manchester, said: “It’s kinda unreal, I’m waiting to wake up. I’ve been dreaming about this for four years, and it still feels like I’m dreaming four years ago, I’m still waiting to wake up.
“I didn’t put any pressure on myself. You go in and out of it, you’re thinking there is some pressure and maybe it’s not going to happen this time.
“But you’ve just got to let that go really quick and refocus. I tried not to have any pressure and I tried to focus on enjoying myself and taking it one trick at a time.
On the 360 backflip she said: "It was incredible. I’ve not been doing that trick for that long, we’ve been trying to find that big banger trick and when we found it we thought, ‘this is the one’.
“We put a lot of faith in that. To be honest, I wouldn’t have had any of those tricks if it wasn’t for Hannah [Roberts, silver medallist]. She’s made me push so hard since day one, this is the first time I’ve beaten her.
“If it wasn’t for Hannah Roberts, we wouldn’t be this far anyway."
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