Aussie BMX gun Saya Sakakibara reveals illness dogged her lead-up to flawless performance
PARIS: Australia's Saya Sakakibara has avoided the carnage of the BMX racing course to reach the semi-finals unscathed.
Sakakibara, who was knocked unconscious in a brutal semi-final crash in Tokyo, rode clear of the chaos to win all three of her quarter-final runs.
It put the 24-year-old through as one of the 12 automatic qualifiers and allowed her to avoid the last-chance race.
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Saya Sakakibara racing in her brother's #77. Getty
Sakakibara told Nine's coverage she had been sick this week and missed a training session. Nine
After the final run, Sakakibara revealed she had missed a training session this week with illness.
"Once I got up there on the first gate ... the crowd, the atmosphere, that got me this the zone, put that pressure on me to perform well, and, yeah, I was really counting on that pressure to get like the best out of me.
"Once I got that first one out of the way, I was like, OK, I can do this.
"I just tried to repeat it another two times."
She'll ride again on Friday for a place in the final and looms as a genuine medal shot.
It would be a remarkable moment for Sakakibara and her family, who have been through so much in the past few years.
Her brother and biggest supporter Kai was left in a coma for six weeks and suffered life-changing injuries in an awful 2020 fall of his own, with their touching story reducing Nine host Ally Langdon to tears in the coverage last week.
Sakakibara competes in her brother's racing number, 77.
Fellow Australia Lauren Reynolds, in her third Olympics, also qualified for the semi-finals with placings of fourth, third and third.
Izaac Kennedy (No.10) reached the men's BMX racing semi-final - all with a broken wrist. AP
In the men's event, the Gold Coast's Izaac Kennedy, 23, also made the semi-final, finishing fifth, second and first to qualify sixth.
Kennedy is racing in Paris with a broken wrist after a nasty crash in May.
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