First, Mariana Pajón of Colombia completed a clean sweep of victories in her four races to take gold in the women's event, from Sarah Walker of New Zealand and Laura Smulders of the Netherlands.

Then defending Olympic champion Maris Štrombergs (pictured top, centre) of Latvia powered over the line ahead of stand-out semi-final performer Sam Willoughby of Australia, with another Colombian, Carlos Mario Oquendo Zabala, pipping two Dutch riders for bronze.

There was disappointment in both races for Britain, and the watching David Beckham and British Prime Minister David Cameron, with Shanaze Reade having to settle for sixth in the women's contest, while Liam Phillips crashed out of the men's final and was left sitting alone on the track while the race carried on without him.

Mariana Pajón heads Sarah Walker en route to BMX gold for Colombia

The results were a good illustration of how countries with little tradition of Olympic success can still burst to the fore in individual sports with a bit of well-targeted effort.

Štrombergs was one of four Latvians – three men and one woman – in the 32-strong semi-final line-ups; given the colour of their uniforms, you might think of them as the "Maroon Four".

I was told by watching Latvian reporters that the majority of the small Baltic nation's BMX riders come from the tiny town of Valmiera, where its first BMX track was built.

Another, somewhat similar to the London 2012 circuit, has now been constructed at Rubene.

Both Colombian medallists hail from Medellín, a contender in the current race for the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games.

It would now seem natural to expect that Pajón, whose overjoyed father was watching near the finish line, will play a part in Medellín's campaign.

Edžus Treimanis tumbles from his bike during the seeding runs

"I have been trying to win this my whole life," the 20-year-old said after her emphatic victory.

The action was fast and furious and there were several crashes, with one rider –Brazil's Squel Stein – needing to be removed from the course on a stretcher.

My own attention was taken by Edžus Treimanis, another of the Latvian riders, whom I had seen take a horrible fall in the initial seeding runs on Wednesday (August 8).

He had, nonetheless, fought his way through the quarter-finals and, as I watched, narrowly failed to progress to the final from his three semi-final races.

I later realised that the crew-cut rider was competing with two strips of plaster stuck to his face on either side of his nose.

My Latvian journalist friend told me it was suspected that the nose was broken.

They breed them tough in Valmiera, clearly.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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