Britain’s Charlotte Worthington tried her luck by doing a trick never managed before in a female BMX competition.
The trick paid off as Worthington won the inaugural BMX freestyle Olympic title on Sunday by landing the first-ever 360 backflip in the women’s competition.
She scored a huge 97.50 points to take the lead which she never relinquished. Much fancied Hannah Roberts of the United States took silver (96.10) and Switzerland’s Nikita Ducarroz settled for bronze (89.20).
“It was superb. I have not been doing that trick for that long, but we’ve been trying to find that big banger trick and when we found it we were like, ‘I think this is the one ’,” Worthington said after snatching gold.
Australia’s Logan Martin won the men’s competition with a score of 93.30, finishing ahead of Venezuela’s Daniel Dhers (92.05) and Britain’s Declan Brooks (90.80).