Evans set for Rio BMX quarter-final

Wigan's Kyle Evans qualified for today's BMX quarter-finals in Rio.
Great Britain's Kyle Evans competes in the BMX seedings at the Olympic BMX CentreGreat Britain's Kyle Evans competes in the BMX seedings at the Olympic BMX Centre
Great Britain's Kyle Evans competes in the BMX seedings at the Olympic BMX Centre

The Hindley rider, 23, was in 21st place overall, with team-mate Liam Phillips in 10th.

Frenchman Joris Daudet set the pace with a time of 34.617secs, while Evans was a little way off that with 35.776.

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Evans later tweeted: “Big over shoot on the first straight cost me a lot of time.. That pesky tail wind gave me a push! Loved it!”

The quarters start at 5.30pm our time today.

Elsewhere, Great Britain will go for gold against Holland in the Olympic women’s hockey final on Friday.

Whatever happens, Britain’s women have already confirmed their best performance in Olympic hockey history.

They surpassed bronze medal successes, at Barcelona 24 years ago and London 2012, by beating semi-final opponents New Zealand 3-0 in Deodoro thanks to an Alex Danson double and Helen Richardson-Walsh’s penalty strike.

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Kate Richardson-Walsh’s team have now matched the likes of Sean Kerly, Ian Taylor and Paul Barber, who reached the men’s Olympic final at Seoul in 1988.

And they will want to emulate the most famous team British hockey has seen by winning gold, albeit against a Dutch side seeking a hat-trick of Olympic titles.

But they got there the hard way, seeing Crista Cullen and Georgie Twigg go off after suffering blows to the head, then Helen Richardson-Welsh limped away immediately after rifling her penalty home as Britain secured a seventh successive win of the tournament.

Tonia Couch advanced from the preliminary round in the women’s 10 metres platform competition - but Sarah Barrow is out.

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Couch accumulated 332.80 points to place fifth and qualify for Thursday’s semi-finals at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre. The European silver medallist has a good chance of progressing to Thursday afternoon’s final.

Barrow scored 277.40 from her five dives to finish 23rd and exit the competition.

The 27-year-old from Plymouth has been hampered by illness and a series of injuries since placing fifth with Couch in the 10m platform.

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