Tokyo 2020: Bethany Shriever wins BMX gold

Bethany Shriever won a BMX racing Olympic gold for Team GB, minutes after her teammate Kye Whyte won silver in the men’s event.

Shriever led from the first bend, holding off a late attempt from defending champion Mariana Pajon of Colombia down the final straight, ending her bid for a third straight Olympic gold medal. The Netherland’s Merel Smulders took the bronze.

She had dominated in qualifying, and delivered in the final, securing Britain’s sixth gold medal in the process.

After her win, Shriever said: “I’m just in bits. I tried my hardest out there today and to be rewarded with a gold medal is honestly mind-blowing. I kept my cool today, kept it simple, and it worked. I’m over the moon. I’ve done my family and my boyfriend back home proud. I don’t think it’s registering right now what’s just happened.”

The victory came just minutes after Kye Whyte won silver in the men’s event, Britain’s first ever medal in the sport.

He rode impressively, retaining his composure after crashes delayed the event, and came just 0.114 seconds behind the Dutch rider Niek Kimmann. Colombia’s Carlos Alberto Ramirez Yepes took the bronze.

He said: “The medal means everything to me. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It is hard to get to the Olympics in the first place. To do well and get a medal, it is special.”

This double success, following on from Tom Pidcock’s mountain bike gold on Monday, gives British Cycling quick results in their bid to look beyond the velodrome at these Games.

Neither the men’s mountain biking nor the women’s BMX were funded by UK Sport in this Olympic cycle, but British Cycling applied to redirect funds from elsewhere in order to back their riders – and have been rewarded with gold medals in both.