Bay of Plenty’s Sarah Walker justified her reputation as one of the world’s best women’s BMX riders when she recorded the second-fastest time of the 16 competitors in the Olympic seedings round today.
Walker clocked 38.644s, just behind Australian Caroline Buchanan, who was timed at 38.434.
The seedings round determines the selection order for the semi-finals and final on Friday.
Walker, just turned 24, finished fourth in this event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and is a former world champion.
In the men’s BMX seedings round, Marc Willers was 10th of the 32 starters with a time of 38.687s. Fellow New Zealander Kurt Pickard was 16th in 39.057s.
The men will ride another round tomorrow to whittle the field down to 16 for Friday’s semi-finals and final.