Olympics-Cycling-Willoughby avoids crashes to reach semis in style

By Martyn Herman RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Australia's Sam Willoughby stayed firmly on course for BMX gold as three of his main Olympic rivals were eliminated after a spate of crashes in the quarter-finals on Thursday. Willoughby won all three runs of his heat, avoiding the kinds of problems that accounted for Latvia's double Olympic champion Maris Strombergs, world champion Joris Daudet of France and former world title winner Liam Phillips of Britain. Four heats of eight riders, each heat comprising three runs of the spectacular red and green 399m course, decided who moved forward to Friday's semi-finals. Riders received points depending on where they finished in each run, with one to the winner, down to eight for the last man to cross the line. The four men with the lowest totals in each of the heats qualified. So Willoughby's three points, for winning all his runs, represented a tidy day's work. Not that he was taking anything for granted after watching the wind, combined with a testing course, wipe so many out. "Not even close to job done," the 25-year-old South Australian, who was second behind Strombergs in London, told reporters. "The key today was the wind, it was carnage. "I feel like I ran at about 80-90 (percent) all day and ticked off clean laps and that's what today was about. "Winning laps is great, but I know I can go quicker." After crashing out, Phillips tweeted a picture of himself from a treatment room saying he was OK. American Connor Fields was joined in the semi-finals by compatriots Nicholas Long and Corben Sharrah while Willoughby will have the impressive Anthony Dean for company. Fields, who will race in the same eight-man semi-final heat as Willoughby, said the wind had changed direction from Wednesday's individual seeding runs. "The tail wind made the jumps feel two or three metres longer, which was the opposite of yesterday," Fields, who recovered from a badly broke wrist to compete in Rio, said. "You know, it would be nice if it was perfect weather. But it's a level playing field, it's the same for everyone and it's about adapting. That's BMX, this is not a velodrome." Canada's Tory Nyhaug was almost as impressive as Willoughby, winning two of his runs coming second in the other. "To go one, one, two the first day is pretty much as good as it could have gone," he said. "I'm definitely stoked and ready for tomorrow. I had a ton of fun today." (Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Alison Williams)