Virginia Beach’s Justin Dowell advanced to the finals with a fourth-place finish in freestyle BMX qualifying Tuesday morning at the Olympics in Paris.
Dowell, a graduate of Princess Anne High, is competing in his second consecutive Olympics after an eighth-place finish in 2021 in Tokyo. Dowell won the world championship in 2018 and won a bronze medal at the 2018 Pan American Games.
On Tuesday, Dowell, 24, finished with scores of 88.40 and 89.74 on his two runs to place fourth in qualifying.
Kieran Reilly of Great Britain was first with a 91.21 average, followed by American rider Marcus Christopher (89.48), Australia’s Logan Martin (89.39) and Dowell (89.97). Twelve riders participated in qualifying, and the top nine finishers qualified for the Olympic finals at 8:44 a.m. Wednesday at Place de La Concorde.
The two-run average is used in the qualifying rounds, but only the riders’ best of two 60-second runs counts in the finals.
In the women’s freestyle BMX qualifying, five-time world champion Hannah Roberts of the United States finished first, while reigning gold medalist Charlotte Worthington of Britain failed to advance to the finals.
Roberts, who finished second to Worthington in the discipline’s debut at the Tokyo Games, had the best single score of 91.80 points and the best two-run average of 91.45, sending her into Wednesday’s finals as the No. 1 seed. She was joined by American teammate Perris Benegas, who had the unenviable first qualifying position, but wound up fourth.
Roberts landed a 360 tuck no-hander bar spin to open her ride, and a stretched-out superman tailwhip later, which had American BMX coach Ryan Nyquist cheering by the end. Roberts followed with a strong second run highlighted by a stylish 360 tailwhip.
Reilly was the only rider in the men’s competition to do the difficult front flip, the reigning world champion landing it in each of his rides. That allowed him to easily secure the coveted No. 1 seed for the Olympic finals.
ODU sailor, partner drop to 12th: Former Old Dominion standout Stephanie Roble paired with United States teammate Maggie Shea to place 17th on Tuesday in the women’s skiff sailing competition.
They are ranked 12th overall heading into the fourth day of competition Wednesday.
The top 10 teams after Wednesday’s races will compete in the medal race.
Collins reaches quarters: Former University of Virginia standout Danielle Collins advanced to the quarterfinals of the women’s singles tennis tournament Tuesday with a 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Camila Osorio of Colombia.
Collins, the No. 8 seed, has a tough task ahead, though. She will face top seed Iga Swiatek of Poland in a quarterfinal at 9 a.m. Wednesday (Peacock). Swiatek, who has won four French Open titles on the same courts, defeated No. 52 Wang Xiyu of China 6-2, 6-4.
Another former UVA star, No. 11 Emma Navarro, lost to No. 6 Qinwen Zheng of China 6-7, 7-6, 6-1 on Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
757 in the Olympics
Also Tuesday
-Stephanie Roble (Old Dominion) and United States teammate Maggie Shea finished 17th Tuesday as the women’s skiff sailing event continued. Roble and Shea are 12th overall.
Wednesday
-Leah Crouse (Virginia Beach) and the US field hockey team play Australia at 7:15 a.m. in a Pool B game.
-Justin Dowell (Virginia Beach) competes in the freestyle BMX finals at 8:44 a.m.
-Stephanie Roble (Old Dominion) continues competition with teammate Maggie Shea in the women’s skiff sailing event.
