News A star-studded line-up of the world’s top BMX riders will grace the Rio 2016 test event this weekend, as one of the Olympic Games’ newest and most radical sports takes centre stage in the host city The men’s and women’s Olympic and world champions will be among the competitors testing the newly built course in Deodoro Olympic Park On Friday (2 October), a group of athletes took to the BMX course for a test run Subsequently, the UCI (International Cycling Union) requested that the Rio 2016 Organising Committee make small alterations to further increase excitement and safety at the event The changes were to be made on Saturday, meaning the test event will take place on Sunday (4 October) It will run from midday to 5pm, with elimination rounds, quarter-finals, semi-finals and medal races “All of the leading competitors in the world will be here,” said Jorge Vasquez, Rio 2016’s BMX sport manager “We will have all of the top 10 in the men’s world rankings and nine of the top 10 women And they will need all of their ability because this course we have built is the biggest in the history of the sport in the Olympic Games and is extremely technical ”The brightest stars include Latvia’s Maris Strombergs – who took the men’s gold medal on BMX’s Olympic debut at the Beijing 2008 Games, and then retained his title at London 2012 – and Colombia’s Mariana Pajón, who won the women’s gold medal in London They will be joined by the current world champions – Niek Kimmann of the Netherlands and Venezuela’s Stefany Hernandez As rivals crash out behind, Maris Strombergs (centre) powers towards gold at the London 2012 Games (Getty Images/Clive Brunskill) About 90 riders are expected to compete this weekend at the Olympic BMX Centre, which along with the Mountain Bike Centre and Whitewater Stadium form the X-Park Although the test event does not offer direct qualification to next year’s Olympic Games, world ranking points that will count towards qualification will be up for grabs  The course, which was unveiled in August, was designed by American Tom Ritzenthaler, who also created the Beijing and London tracks, and has been approved by the UCI It is is 400m long with total area of ​​around 4000m² and features a series of jumps, obstacles and tight bends that riders must negotiate while racing in the Olympic ‘supercross’ format, which comprises eight riders in each race One of the most dramatic aspects of the course promises to be the ‘Sugarloaf jump’, named in homage to Rio’s famous Sugarloaf Mountain “It’s a very high jump and only the best riders will be able to speed through this,” said Vasquez Rio 2016 will use the event to test operations across 28 departments, such as results management, sports presentation and medical services It will be the 12th Rio 2016 event and the first in a series of three at the X-Park, with mountain bike taking place on 11 October and canoe slalom 26-29 November Rio 2016 test events in numbers