KEY POINTS:
BEIJING - In BMX cycling you take the rough with the smooth, and for world No 1 Sarah Walker it was a case of the latter as two medal rivals crashed during seeding races at the Laoshan Moto Cross track today.
The New Zealander comfortably qualified fourth fastest
after two time trials against the clock, positioning herself handily for tomorrow's semifinals.
There she will jostle with seven other riders over a trio of elimination races to secure one of eight available lanes for the historic medal race finale (at 2.30pm NZT).
The 20-year-old from Kawerau has drawn the second lane choice after top qualifying Frenchwoman Anne-Caroline Chausson fell victim to one of eye-catching calamities on a day the sport renowned for high speed thrills and spills.
Chausson set the quickest time with her first run of 36.660 seconds but lost control on the bump sequence on the home straight second time round with near disastrous consequences.
The 2008 world championship silver medallist catapulted over the handlebars and appeared to damage a wrist after hitting the dirt.
Chausson gingerly left the track for treatment but the injury is not serious enough to prevent her competing as the women's field is halved from 16.
Shanaze Reade took the first high-profile tumble, the Great British world champion grazing her elbow when canning out on the first sweeping asphalt bend.
However, the 19-year-old bounced back to safely complete her second run and qualify second fastest as the only other rider to break the 37sec barrier.
France's second rider Laetitia le Corguille was third, to complete a top four comprising the sport's leading ladies.
While Reade and Chausson had imperfect solo rides, Walker was calmness personified in setting a solid time of 37.157sec before lolling to the finish line in her second race, job done.
Walker was off limits after her preliminaries but appeared at ease.
Her hand movements initially indicated her first seeding run was so-so, although she upgraded to a cheery thumbs up for the cameras.
New Zealand's sole entrant in the men's field, Marc Willers, was similarly upbeat after clearing far more significant obstacles.
His time trials were followed by three quarterfinal runs to whittle the field from 32 to 16.
Willers, who had a minor crash in his first quarterfinal, recovered to finish fourth before banking third and second placings to also earn the second lane choice for his three semifinal runs.
"It's been an awesome day for us," New Zealand BMX coach Ken Cools said.
Walker has avoided Reade in her semifinals, a draw that pleased the Canadian.
"Shanaze is fast but she a little loose at times," he said, suggesting the Brit's inconsistency might cause collateral damage.
Cools, whose sister Sammy is also included in Walker's motos, considered Chausson a more calming influence in gate one.
He also said the spills by Reade and Chausson were irrelevant, and hardly a psychological boost for the New Zealander.
"Not at all, we crash all the time," he told NZPA.
"It's part of our sport. You can only worry about yourself."
Although Reade is considered the fittest BMXer on the women's circuit, her technical fallibility is also well known.
"She has more power than anyone else but she hasn't got the skills to match it," Walker said pre-competition.
"There are times when she stuffs up - jumps too far, too short, too high, usually too low, and that's where she gets beaten."
Willers avoided the carnage in the men's races as the world No 5 progressed shoulder to shoulder with the big names.
None of the leading men were eliminated, leaving Willers lumped in with leading Americans Mike Day and Donny Robinson and South African Sifiso Nhalapo.
World champion Maris Strombergs qualified a pedestrian seventh, condemning the Latvian to an outside lane in the other semifinal grouping notable for the inclusion of ominously named Australian Kamikazi.
The boilermaker from Jimboomba, originally christened Jamie Hildebrandt, changed his name by deed poll to fit the Queenslander's persona - and his sport.
"He's a character, definitely," Cools said.
"He either goes fast or blows up."
That's BMX in a nutshell.
- NZPA