Abstract: On May 18th, BMX freestyle will welcome the final of the Olympic Qualification Series in Shanghai.
On May 17, the Olympic Qualification Series Shanghai ushered in the preliminaries of freestyle BMX, and the Chinese women who were competing at home performed well, with Sun Sibei, Sun Jiaqi and Deng Yawen taking the top three. World No. 1 Hannah Roberts finished fifth in the heats.
A total of 48 top BMX freestyle athletes (24 men and 24 women) from around the world will compete for 12 quota places (six for men and women) at Paris 2024 in Shanghai. According to the rules, the results of the two Olympic qualification series in Shanghai, China and Budapest, Hungary are combined, and the top six athletes in the men's and women's rankings will be awarded Olympic quotas.
Sun Sibei in the game. Photography by Labor Daily reporter Yan Xiaoyi
BMX freestyle was a late adopter in China, but with the entry of the sport into the Olympic Games, the Chinese team has made rapid progress through cross-border selection. Up to now, the Chinese team has ranked first in the world ranking of the BMX freestyle team. The second and third are the United States and Australia, respectively. In terms of individual rankings, Sun Sibei, Zhou Huimin and Deng Yawen are ranked second, third and fourth in the world respectively, just behind Hannah Roberts. Unfortunately, Zhou Huimin was unable to compete due to injury.
In this competition held in Shanghai, the women's BMX freestyle competition attracted many spectators. Sun Jiaqi, China's first BMX World Cup winner, played in the second group of the preliminaries and performed amazingly. She scored 87.8 points in the first round, which was also the highest score in the first round. After playing in the second round, Sun Jiaqi continued to play steadily, scoring 85.6 points, and finally ranked second with an average score of 86.7.
The 18-year-old Sun Sibei played in the fourth group of the preliminaries and scored 85 points in the first round, laying a solid foundation for the final ranking. In the second round, Sun Sibei scored 89.8 points, which was also the highest score in the preliminaries of the day. In the end, Sun Sibei surpassed Sun Jiaqi by 0.7 points with an average score of 87.4 and jumped to the first place.
Deng Yawen played. Photography by Labor Daily reporter Yan Xiaoyi
Another player in the Chinese team, Deng Yawen, won the World Cup last year, beating Hannah Roberts and Charlotte Worthington. In the preliminaries of the day, Deng Yawen played steadily and finally ranked third with 85.4 points, which allowed the Chinese team to sweep the top three in the preliminaries.
According to the rules, the Chinese team can only send a maximum of two players to compete in the Paris Olympics, so who will win the internal competition of the Chinese team will depend on the final ranking of the Shanghai and Budapest stops.
The header picture shows Deng Yawen in the competition. Photography by Labor Daily reporter Yan Xiaoyi