Reilly starts well in Olympic Qualifier Series

Kieran Reilly is aiming to make his Olympic debut in Paris

Great Britain's BMX world champion Kieran Reilly moved closer to his first Olympics after finishing third in the first leg of the Olympic Qualifier Series in Shanghai.

Reilly, who won the men’s elite BMX freestyle park title in Glasgow last year, becoming Britain’s first world champion in the sport, scored 89.28 to finish behind France’s Anthony Jeanjean (93.54) and Olympic champion Logan Martin of Australia (92.65).

On Sunday, there was bronze for climber Erin McNeice in the boulder and lead event to boost her hopes of selection for the Paris Games later this summer.

McNeice scored 127.8 with gold going to American Brooke Raboutou (140.9) and silver to South Korea’s Chaehyun Seo (134.3), while Hamish McArthur was seventh in the men's competition.

The event in China, which also includes breaking and skateboarding, was the first of two legs in which athletes have the chance to earn ranking points towards Olympic quota spots, with the second event to take place in Budapest from 20-23 June.

Reilly and McNeice's third place finishes give them 41 out of a possible 50 ranking points in their respective standings while Jude Jones, who finished one place below Reilly in his event, earned 38 points.

Dylan Hessey was 12th while in the women’s BMX freestyle competition, teenager Sasha Pardoe finished 11th, one place ahead of Olympic champion Charlotte Worthington.

Worthington is back in action after she took a break from competition as she struggled to regain her love for the sport after her 2021 Tokyo win.

In the breaking, British b-boy Sunni could not progress from the round-robin stage while skateboarders Tommy Calvert, George O'Neill, Andy Macdonald and Lily Strachan all failed to advance to the semi-finals of the park events.

Olympic bronze medallist Sky Brown missed the event with a knee injury but hopes to be fit to return in Budapest.