Three favourites are out of gold medal contention after a series of crashes in the men's BMX quarter-finals at the Olympic BMX Centre on Thursday (18 August).

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French world champion Joris Daudet, former world champion Liam Phillips of Great Britain and Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games gold medallist from Latvia Maris Strombergs did not progress into the semi-final and gold medal rounds on Friday as 32 starters battled for 16 spots.

Phillips and Strombergs collided coming into the second straight in their first run, with the two-time Olympic champion finishing fifth in his eight-rider heat, from which the top four qualified.

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Maris Strombergs is the only man to have won Olympic gold at BMX and has lost his title in Rio (Photo: Getty Images/Christian Petersen)

Strombergs lost a tie-breaker based on finishing position in the last of three runs, and is out of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Phillips was knocked off course and was forced to abandon with injury. He did not start his second run but later tweeted that he was all right, thanking fans for their messages.

Daudet crashed on the second straight in his second run as strong headwinds caused him to land short on a jump. He started his third run, finishing last, and did not qualify for the semi-finals on Friday.

Strong winds meant competitors were dealing with tailwinds on part of the course and headwinds on other parts, making for uneven race conditions as riders tried to measure their efforts to safely negotiate jumps and corners.

Many riders found the hot and windy conditions challenging (Photo: Getty Images/Tom Pennington)

Niek Kimmann from the Netherlands snapped his front wheel off during a crash and walked across the finish line in run one, but still managed to qualify for the semifinals.

Others mastered the windy conditions, with London 2012 silver medallist Sam Willloughby of Australia the only rider to win all three runs in his heat. Fellow Australian Anthony Dean, Canadian Tory Nyhaug and Dutchman Jelle van Gorkom all won two of three runs in their respective heats to reach the semi-finals.

The gold medal will be decided on Friday, in what should be another fantastic day's racing in Deodoro.

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