2018 Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires report by BdJ

Oct 22, 2018

Written by Bart de Jong

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During this week Olympic gold medals were handed out for BMX Freestyle Park in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Youth Olympic Games had a mixed BMX Freestyle event on the schedule which started with a Seeding and Qualifying phase on Wednesday, followed by a big and small final on Thursday. Qualifying for the Youth Olympic Games happened last year already during the UCI Urban World Championships in Chengdu, China. 8 Men and 8 women got a spot to perform at the YOG which was a first in BMX Freestyle. The riders became part of their national Olympic squad for the games and represented their country and welcomed the support from all corners. Hurricane (FISE) had built up a basic Park course at the Urban Park in Puerto Madero for the 17-18 year old athletes.

After qualifying on Wednesday 10 October it looked like the battle for gold would be between Germany and Argentina. But with Germany in first position in both Men (Evan Brandes) and Women (Lara Lessmann) in qualification, it was up to Argentina (Iki Mazza and Agustina Roth) to shine during the finals. The top four in each gender made it to the Big final. Those who finished in postition 5-8 in qualifying were stuck in the small final and would only battle for those available places in the ranking. Men and Women rode separately. Each rider scored points and the points of the team mates were added up to form the final ranking of the competition. 15 points for a first place, 10 for second, 8 for third, 6 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1. In case of a tie, the highest rank would count. If that would still be the same, both teams would get the same spot.

It was up to Argentina to take one win away from Germany in the finals to have a chance on a gold medal. Lara Lessmann (GER) however was hard to beat. Even in the Best Run Counts final system the German rider did not make any mistakes and kicked some cancans, did some barspins and crankflips on her way to first place for Deutschland. Agustina Roth (ARG) managed to finish 2nd and Kanami Tanno (Japan) rode to a solid 3rd place in the final.

The Men's final turned out to be a thriller. Evan Brandes had been going full throttle all week long and did not slow down one bit during his final runs. His 78,33 was topped by Inaki Mazza with an 81 after run one. This sent Argentina to the top of the podium and 15 points for the host country. Evan Brandes however stepped it up for run two and scored an 82.00 which wasn't enough to beat the score of Inaki's second run of 83,33. With at 1-2 for Germany and a 2-1 for Argentina a tie for gold was the outcome. Japan finished on a solid 3rd position in the Mixed BMX Freestyle Park competition at the Youth Olympic Games.

BdJ

Team results:

1) Germany & Argentina
3) Japan

Individual results:

Women:

Big Final
1 GER LESSMANN Lara 83.66
2 ARG ROTH Agustina 74.00
3 JPN TANNO Kanami 71.00
4 RUS PINKINA Valeriia 62.33

Small Final
5 CZE PRIKRYLOVA Nikol 59.50
6 BRA BORDIGNON Eduarda 57.33
7 COL ECHEVERRY Estefanya 48.66
8 VEN HERNANDEZ Yeinkerly 41.33

Men:

Big Final
1 ARG IRIARTES Inaki 83.33
2 GER BRANDES Evan 82.00
3 LAT VIKSNA Patriks 74.83
4 JPN OSHIMO Yuma 71.66

Small Final
5 COL MARTINEZ Sebastian 72.00
6 CZE HABADA Martin 67.66
7 RUS KIM Alexander 65.00
8 BRA MORAES Wesley 55.00

Qualifying results Youth Olympic Games 2018 Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Men:
1 BRANDES Evan 83.66
2 IRIARTES Inaki 79.83
3 VIKSNA Patriks 68.33
4 OSHIMO Yuma 64.66
5 KIM Alexander 62.74
6 MARTINEZ Sebastian 59.49
7 MORAES Wesley 44.50
8 HABADA Martin 35.66

Women:
1 LESSMANN Lara 82.16
2 ROTH Agustina 68.83
3 TANNO Kanami 64.99
4 PINKINA Valeriia 60.66
5 PRIKRYLOVA Nikol 53.50
6 ECHEVERRY Estefanya 43.33
7 HERNANDEZ Yeinkerly 31.83
8 BORDIGNON Eduarda 30.66