- Logan Martin was unable to defend his Olympic gold medal
- The BMX freestyler did not win a medal in the Paris final
- Penny Smith won bronze in women’s skeet shooting
Logan Martin has been dethroned as the king of Olympic BMX freestyle, after the Australian great crashed in both heats of the final.
But Australia found a new star in the event when Natalya Diehm put in the performance of her life as her rivals stuttered to a surprise bronze medal in the women’s competition at La Concorde on Wednesday.
Martin, the 30-year-old maestro who triumphed at the inaugural event in Tokyo three years ago, sought to go further, knowing how much his rivals have improved over the past three years.
But despite a brilliant first lap, the front wheel of his BMX clipped the edge of a jump on a trick just before the finish and he crashed dismally onto the track.
In the second heat, while trying to overtake the brilliant Argentine leader José Torres Gil, Martín landed hard after a double flare, lost momentum and ran off, his dream of double gold over.
His first-round score of 64.40 left him in ninth and final place in the final while Torres Gil took gold with a routine he scored 94.82, ahead of Britain’s Kieran Reilly (93.91) and local hero Anthony Jeanjean (93.76).
Meanwhile, Penny Smith won Australia’s first shooting medal at the Paris Olympics, taking bronze in the trap.
Logan Martin has been unable to defend his Olympic gold medal in BMX freestyle in Paris
The Australian legend failed in both of his runs in Wednesday’s final
Meanwhile, Penny Smith (right) won bronze in the women’s clay pigeon shooting final.
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The 29-year-old southpaw from Bookaar in Victoria’s Western District was a strong performer in the final in Chateauroux in the south of France.
But two errors in her final qualifying round left Smith one off the pace, with Guatemala’s Adriana Ruano Oliva winning her country’s first Olympic gold medal ahead of Italy’s Maria Stanco.
It is also the world number 11’s first Olympic medal, after Smith finished sixth in the team trap and mixed trap at the Tokyo Games.
Earlier on Wednesday, Smith prevailed in a three-way playoff to reach the final.
