Niek Kimmann of The Netherlands took silver behind France's Romain Mathieu at today's re-scheduled Tokyo 2020 BMX racing test event ©Getty Images

France’s Romain Mahieu won the Tokyo 2020 cycling BMX racing event that was brought forward to today to avoid the worst effects of Typhoon Hagibis,

The 24-year-old was successful in a "Ready Steady Tokyo" event at Ariake Urban Sports Park that was condensed into one day, having originally been planned for tomorrow and Sunday.

The women's race was won by Australia's Saya Sakakibara.

The violent typhoon, which meteorologists predicted would pass over Tokyo on Saturday, had already caused the cancellation of two matches at the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

Tokyo 2020 organisers had announced yesterday the event would be re-scheduled "due to the influence of the typhoon".

The Tokyo 2020 test event for BMX racing was held as Japan braces itself for Typhoon Hagibis, potentially the worst storm it will encounter all year ©Getty Images
The Tokyo 2020 test event for BMX racing was held as Japan braces itself for Typhoon Hagibis, potentially the worst storm it will encounter all year ©Getty Images

Mahieu finished in 40.480sec ahead of Dutch cyclist Niek Kimmann, winner of the 2019 International Cycling Union (UCI) World Cup, who clocked 40.828.

Switzerland's David Graf, third in the World Cup, was third here in 41.527.

But Mahieu's French team-mates had less success.

Jeremy Rencurel, fourth in this year’s UCI World Championships, fell victim to a technical problem and was disqualified because a transponder recording his position was not correctly installed on his bike.

Axelle Etienne, bronze medalist at the World Championships, went out in the semi-finals and Romain Mayet, the French time trial champion, was eliminated because of a crash in the first heat.

Sakakibara won in 47.599 ahead of two United States racers - Alise Willoughby, who clocked 47.635, and Felicia Stancil, who finished in 48.370.