Worthington survives crash to smash historic move and win BMX freestyle gold

The former chef produces dramatic second run to overhaul three-time world champion Roberts

Great Britain's Charlotte Worthington on her way to winning gold in the women's BMX freestyle at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo.

Great Britain's Charlotte Worthington on her way to winning gold in the women's BMX freestyle at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo.

Gold medallist Charlotte Worthington of Great Britain .

Charlotte Worthington with GB teammate Declan Brooks, who won bronze in the men's event.

Great Britain's Charlotte Worthington on her way to winning gold in the women's BMX freestyle at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo.

Great Britain's Charlotte Worthington on her way to winning gold in the women's BMX freestyle at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo.

Charlotte Worthington celebrates her win.

Great Britain's Charlotte Worthington on her way to winning gold in the women's BMX freestyle at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo.

Great Britain's Charlotte Worthington on her way to winning gold in the women's BMX freestyle at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo.

Great Britain's Charlotte Worthington on her way to winning gold in the women's BMX freestyle at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo.

Charlotte Worthington won gold for Great Britain in the premier Olympic women’s BMX freestyle competition after nailing the first 360 backflip to be performed in female competition.

The 25-year-old Mancunian produced a huge second run – having crashed attempting the move in her first.

It was just one of several highlights in a second effort that earned the former chef a monster score of 97.50 to edge out three-time world champion Hannah Roberts of the United States.

Having made the 360 stick early in her run, a confident-looking Worthington also threw in a front flip and a huge backflip to pad her scoring and deliver yet another BMX medal for Britain after the racing gold and silver for Beth Shriever and Kye Whyte.

“It’s kind of unreal, I’m waiting to wake up,” Worthington said. “I’ve been dreaming about this for four years, and it still feels like I’m dreaming four years ago, I’m still waiting to wake up.

“I didn’t put any pressure on myself. You go in and out of it, you’re thinking there is some pressure and maybe it’s not going to happen this time.

“But you’ve just got to let that go really quick and refocus. I tried not to have any pressure and I tried to focus on enjoying myself and taking it one trick at a time.”

Worthington, who only started competing in 2016, had shown her ambition in the first run as she attempted the 360 backflip, but missed the landing to hit the deck, leaving her well down the standings after the opening round.

But she showed no fear as she went for the same routine the second time around.

“It was incredible,” she said. “I’ve not been doing that trick for that long, we’ve been trying to find that big banger trick and when we found it we thought, ‘this is the one’.

“We put a lot of faith in that. To be honest, I wouldn’t have had any of those tricks if it wasn’t for Hannah [Roberts]. She’s made me push so hard since day one, this is the first time I’ve beaten her.

“If it wasn’t for Hannah Roberts, we wouldn’t be this far anyway.”

Roberts had topped the standings at the midway point after an outstanding opening run worth 96.10.

Going last in the order, the 19-year-old had a chance to top Worthington but slipped a pedal early in her run and pulled up to allow Worthington’s celebrations to begin.