Olympic Qualifier Series Budapest Day 3 wrap-up: First winners crowned and quota spots obtained
Check out the highlights and key moments from Day 3 of the OQS Budapest on 22 June, which included winners being crowned in BMX Freestyle Park and speed climbing.
The first winners at the Olympic Qualifier Series 2024 Budapest were awarded their OQS trophies on Saturday (22 June) as BMX Freestyle Park and sport climbing speed events concluded in the Hungarian capital.
With those impressive trophies came something even more coveted: Paris 2024 Olympic Games quota spots*. A total of 26 quotas were secured by athletes on Saturday, with 12 in BMX freestyle and 14 in speed climbing.
The athletes who are taking home a first-place trophy and secured a quota spot are Hannah Roberts, Anthony Jeanjean, Aleksandra Kalucka and Wu Peng, while other big names in both sports such as Deng Yawen, Kieran Reilly, Zhou Yafei and Veddriq Leonardo also obtained quota spots.
Jeanjean will head into a home Games at Paris 2024 as a favourite for gold. "Can't wait to ride in France, Place de la Concorde with all the French guys. It's crazy," he said.
Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Roberts, meanwhile, led a U.S. one-two in Budapest ahead of close friend Perris Benegas, who is also one of the athletes who secured a quota.
"My teammate Perris (was) working through injuries the last year and she's been putting in so much work, off the bike and on the bike, and I wanted her to feel that victory too," Roberts said. "She's come such a long way. And I want her to be so proud of herself because I am and I'm excited for us to go through another Olympics together."
Meanwhile, Kalucka's women's speed climbing win was bittersweet: her victory, and subsequently obtaining a quota spot, meant twin sister Natalia will not go to the Olympic Games this summer.
On the men's side, Wu clocked 4.83 seconds in the semi-final – just 0.05 shy of setting a new world record, and at the same time breaking the Asian record of 4.90, before closing out a comfortable win in the final.
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective teams at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at Paris 2024 depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation. Click here to view the qualification system for each sport.
Rain wreaks havoc with skateboarding programme, with Eaton's run at double in trouble
Heavy rain and thunderstorms greeted the athletes on Saturday morning, forcing a reschedule of the programme across three of the four sports at OQS. In skateboarding, that prompted a big decision: Jagger Eaton, attempting to become the first skateboarder to qualify in both park and street at a single Olympic Games, would not take part in the day's street semi-final.
A big decision, and one that looked a lot worse after a disappointing run for the Arizonan in the park semis. Three falls meant he did not produce a clean run, finishing last of the 16 semi-finalists and jeopardising his position as one of a maximum of three Americans who can obtain a quota in the event.
His teammate Tom Schaar, who qualified for Sunday's final in second, could be the lucky beneficiary with a repeat of his showing from today.
With Eaton not riding in the street event and another big name in Nyjah Huston having missed the cut from Friday's prelims, all eyes were on the five Japanese riders taking part, especially defending Olympic champion Horigome Yuto.
Horigome needs a big performance to overhaul his teammates in the OQS standings, and certainly reminded them that he is a force to be reckoned with by placing top, ahead of the 14-year-old phenom Onodera Ginwoo by seven-tenths of a point.
"I am happy that I landed a new trick today that I had been practicing for so long," Horigome told Olympics.com. "I feel super excited for tomorrow. I will try hard and have fun."
Speaking of 14-year-olds, it was a pair of 14-year-old Australians who shone in the women's skateboarding semi-finals.
First, Arisa Trew was the only park skater to register a score of 90.00 or better, topping the scoresheets (92.06) by over three and a half points. Qualifying leader Sky Brown, just returning from an MCL injury, was down in fourth back on 87.00.
"I'm really proud of landing my runs because I hadn't landed the whole run yet in the competition so it was really cool," Trew said.
Her efforts were matched later in the evening in the street semis by Chloe Covell, who landed a big final trick to catapult her to the top of the standings in that event.
It looked like Japan's Oda Yumeka, the world champion, would be the top semi-finalist, but Covell pulled out a kickflip 50-50 to overtake Oda by nearly three points.
There was also disappointment in the event for reigning Olympic champion Nishiya Momiji, who appears likely to miss out on a quota spot for Paris after finishing down in 15th.
Ginés on form as Nonaka wins "the battle in the back of my mind"
In Boulder & Lead climbing, reigning Olympic champion Alberto Ginés López continued his scintillating form – which he would describe to Olympics.com as "amazing, actually; I'm pretty surprised" – by finishing joint-second in the Boulder section of the semi-finals before top-scoring in Lead.
A group of 25 members of his friends and family have made the trip from Spain to support him, and perhaps boosted by their vocal cheering, Ginés finished the semi-finals nearly 10 full points clear of his nearest rival.
After also finishing qualification as the top climber, Ginés is coming into form at the perfect time ahead of Paris 2024.
Meanwhile, in the women's event, Nonaka Miho out-performed her Japanese teammate Ito Futaba, ending Ito's hopes of making it to the Games this year as only one Japanese woman can obtain a quota at OQS.
"I felt that many people I didn't know had high expectations of me," Nonaka said afterwards. "Naturally, I have a strong desire to meet those expectations, so I felt even more that I had to perform well. I had many worries, but I think it was good that I was able to achieve solid results this time.
"The battle that was always in the back of my mind has ended this time, so from now on, I want to fully concentrate on tackling the climbing problems ahead of me."
Elsewhere, the breaking competitions began with pre-selection and pre-qualifiers.
You can watch the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) in Budapest from 20 to 23 May live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app for mobile devices.
