Sports

St. Cloud's Alise Post advances to BMX semifinals in Rio

August 18, 2016 at 12:01PM

Alise Post of the United States competes in the women's seeding run at the Olympic BMX Center during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (Brian Stensaas — Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

RIO DE JANEIRO – The reigning BMX world champions have earned the top seeds after finishing first in their respective qualifying runs on Wednesday. In the women's draw, Mariana Pajon of Colombia took the top seed with a time of 34.508 seconds.

Pajon was followed by Caroline Buchanan of Australia and Laura Smulders of the Netherlands. Alise Post of St. Cloud finished eighth and qualified for Friday's 11:30 a.m. semifinals.

The finals are 1 p.m. Friday.

Brooke Crain finished seventh and was the top U.S. qualifier. France's Joris Daudet was first on the men's side after finishing the roughly quarter-mile course in 34.617 seconds. He's followed by David Graf of Switzerland and Sam Willoughby of Australia.News Services

Cyclists, from right, Alise Post of the United States, Lauren Smulders of the Netherlands, Stefany Hernandez of Venezuela and Merle van Benthem of the Netherlands ride during a practice session before the women's seeding run at the Olympic BMX Center during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) (The Minnesota Star Tribune)