St. Cloud’s Alise Willoughby Eliminated in Olympic BMX Racing Semifinals
TOKYO -- St. Cloud native Alise Willoughby came up short in her bid to defend the silver medal she won in the Rio Olympics.
After having an outstanding first night of competition in the BMX cycling event on Wednesday night winning all three of her runs, she faltered in the semifinal round on Thursday night.
Willoughby did not finish the first run in her heat giving her eight points out of the eight competitors in the heat. She came back and got third in the second run for another three points. But then she finished seventh out of eight in the third and final run. Her total points of 18 were last in her heat.
The top four finishers in her heat were Felicia Stancil of the USA with seven points, Mariana Pajon of Columbia with eight points, Merel Smulders of the Netherlands with 14 points, and Drew Mechielsen of Canada with 14 points.
In the women's final Great Britan's Bethany Shriever won the gold medal, Columbia's Mariana Pajon took the silver (she was the two-time defending gold medalist), and the Netherlands Merel Smulders took the bronze medal. American Felicia Stancil finished fourth.
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