Finals: BMX Freestyle 2018 Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires

Chilly morning in Buenos Aires as the participants getting warmed up for the first ever Freestyle BMX finals in the history of Youth Olympic Games. 16 riders – 8 guys and 8 girls – will get their name in the history books today.

Based on yesterday´s qualification both guys and girls are divided into two groups. First four from the qualifiers participates in the “big final” and second four in the “small final” deciding for places 5^th to 8^th. The schedule starts with Women´s Small Final followed by Women`s Big Final, then moving on to the guys the same way. Since it is a “mixed” event, the medals are awarded based on the combined result of each national team.

Women small finals goas ahead 10 a.m. local time, with Brazil´s Eduarda Bordignon throwing some footplants and a can-can. In general women´s small final starting light, Hernandes from Venezuela does not show any tricks, but has a good time on the bike dancing and smiling. Columbian Estefanya does a 360 on the table of the small box but Nikol (CZE) one ups her with a can-can and a three on the large box.

The women´s big final shows much more action, Valeriia (RUS) and Kanami (JAP) still taking it easy, showing some can-cans and x-up. Clearly Arggentina´s Augustina Roth coming up after them is a different class, rolling around with much more style, clearing the step-up with a big tuck no hander, and showing some nice wallrides. Lara Lessmann (GER), qualifying first, shows where top level really is. She starts by clearing the big box with a huge can-can, then goes on throwing t-bog on the step-up, truck driver to one-footer, footplant to can-can and tailwhip at the end of her second run. She gets the first place by 11 points. No question, she was the best today.

The men´s small final is heating up as Martinez (ARG) grabs the lead in the first run. Martin Habada (CZE) tries to go  big and pulls a front flip on the big box. Just a little bit underotated, but he cannot keep it on two wheels. To secure his first place on the small final (5^th place overall) in the second run Martinez also tries a huge front flip, but cannot land it. Last man on track is Russia´s Kim Alexander to beat Martinez´s 72, but he falls short scoring only 65 points.

The guys in the big final are tricking every jump and showing where really the panicle of BMX is. After the first run Inaki Iriartes (ARG) is leading, with Evan Brandes from Germany on the second place. If it stays like this there is a tie for gold medal. Inaki steps it up in his second run starting with a big nac-nac flip and pulls a big superman seatgrab but missing the pedal. Evan has to beat 83.33 to clearly get the gold medal for Germany. Can be done, he qualified with 85. His run is amazing, starting with dropping in from the top of the big quarter with a tailwhip, pulling a triple tailwhip on the big box, and tricking every obstacle.

The score comes in…82. He stays on second place, Argentina and Germany gets the gold medal shared with Japan rounding up the top three. As the teams celebrate together you can see true sportsmanship. Bring it on Tokyo, with the best of the world the Olympics will be really amazing!