News “It was a complete test,” said Agberto Guimarães, Rio 2016’s executive director of sport, summing up an intense day of work for organisers and athletes at the BMX test event at Deodoro Olympic Park The competition, whose format was reduced because of bad weather on Sunday (4 October), put to the test the Rio 2016 organising committee’s capacity to respond quickly to different issues, with adjustments to the course made at record speed and Olympic standard medical care provided “We had everything this weekend,” said Guimarães at the end of the 12th Rio 2016 test event “It has been the event that has most allowed us test our ability to resolve problems, starting with the athletes’ protest in relation to the course on Friday and continuing with the rain this afternoon It was a good opportunity to test all of our group and see the speed at which we can react As well as the adjustments we made to the track, other important tests were done, such as in technology operations and medical services ” Riders get big air during the test event in Deodoro (Photo: Rio 2016) The modifications to the course were the result of a list of requests delivered by the athletes to the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the Rio 2016 organising committee after the first training session on Friday (2 October) The riders considered some parts of the track to be technically very difficult and potentially unsafe The response was immediate and the requested adjustments were made the following day, causing the competition to be reduced from two days to just one “It was a spectacular piece of work by RioUrbe (the city government’s public works body),” said Guimarães “In less than 24 hours we managed to make the modifications and by Sunday morning the athletes were training The men and women could test their courses during training and they gave us more information to work with and now we know what we need to do for everything to be perfect during the Games ”All the test event races took pace on the women's circuit (Photo: Rio 2016) Kevin MacCuish, the UCI’s BMX coordinator, was also confident as the event came to an end “Based on what we’ve learned here I am confident that we can overcome whatever minor issues we encountered and that we are going to be ready for 2016,” he said “The next steps are going to be a debriefing, to take in the feedback that we received from the riders on the track, and then we need to process this and make some decisions about what further changes we need to make to the track We also need to do a debrief on the other systems that were tested and figure out what needs to be improved ”Despite the modifications being made, there was not enough time to complete the necessary compacting on some parts of the men’s course, so the decision was made to hold both competitions on the women’s track, which is 372m long One of the women's heats gets under way (Photo: Rio 2016) Competition began at midday with the men’s and women’s pre-qualification time-trials, followed by the quarter-finals However, heavy clouds began to pour rain onto the venue, forcing the cancellation of the rest of the event Medals were awarded based on the best times recorded up to that point, with reigning Olympic champion Mariana Pajón, of Colombia, taking the women’s gold ahead of the Venezuela’s Stefany Hernandez, , the current world champion, and USA’s Brooke Crain In the men’s event, Latvia’s Edzus Treimanis topped the podium ahead of France’s Amidou Mir and Brazil’s Renato Rezende  Olympic champion Mariana Pajón poses with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games logo (Photo: Rio 2016/Lucas Freitas) “The event was very well organised and, in spite of the rain, the heats that took place were really good,” said Pajón “Even with the modifications that were made to the track, I really enjoyed competing here I know that next year everything will be excellent and it will be a great honour to represent my country here in Rio ”Rezende, Brazil’s leading BMX rider, said: “I felt the Olympic atmosphere here and already heard people shouting my name I loved it ”Mir (France), Treimanis (Latvia) and Rezende (Brazil) too the men's medals (Photo: Rio 2016) With BMX being one of the highest-octane Olympic sports, the medical services team mounted a full operation with staff ready to treat both minor and more complicated injuries, with ambulances and a helicopter standing by “We had medical professionals in strategic points along the entire course, in order to be able to attend in the quickest possible manner any injuries,” said Marcelo Patrício, head of medical services at Rio 2016 “Between Friday and Sunday we treated 12 people, including two taken to hospital, without any problems ”The International BMX Challenge was the first test event to be staged at the X-Park, within Deodoro Olympic Park Next up is mountain bike on 11 October, followed by canoe slalom on 26-29 November