As the BMX Supercross event in Manchester, England turned to the knockout rounds on Sunday three American women were in contention with Alise Post the favorite of the pack. Post made things every so slightly nervous by finishing sixth in the second of three runs but won the other two to advance from her pool in second place. Qualifying to move on a bit easier were Brooke Crain, who was second in all three runs in her pool, and Danielle George who finished second twice and third one to advance. George and Crain would be together in the first heat of the semifinals but only Crain moved on as she won the heat and George did not finish. Crain was joined in the final by Post who won her heat by about three quarters of a second.

The final was full of calamity as Post and four others ended up a full eight seconds behind the winner and thus left a final three to compete for the medals. Caroline Buchanan of Australia ended up first, her second straight win to open the season, while Crain finished third. Post would ultimately finish fourth.

After two events Crain sits on 300 points with Post at 280 as they are fifth and sixth in the total standings. George is in 12th. While Buchanan may be pulling out of reach with two wins to open the year second place is only 50 points ahead of Crain.

On the men’s side of things five Americans were in the motos and three of them would move on. In the second heat both Corben Sharrah and Jeffrey Upshaw were both competing and there quickly became a lot of space between them as Sharrah won the first two runs while Upshaw finished fourth and fifth. With the top four advancing there was a real chance for Upshaw in the final run but he finished sixth, just 0.4 behind Coretin Dubois of France and that margin was enough to advance Dubois instead of Upshaw. Sharrah meanwhile made it a clean sweep of all three runs

Heat four had two Americans as well, Nicholas Long and Thomas Zula. Long went third-second-second to advance without too much pressure while Zula went fourth-sixth to put real pressure on him going into the final run. A top-three finish might have been enough but Zula wound up fifth and was eliminated. Finally David Herman was easily into the quarterfinals with a first-second-second in his heat.

Herman saw his competition come to an end in the quarterfinals after a sixth place finish over three second behind fourth. Long and Sharrah on the other hand both won their heats, Long by about a half a second and Sharrah by a full second. The second semifinal heat was an All-American showdown as Long and Sharrah battled for the top spot . Sharrah was over a half second ahead but both advanced to the final.

A clean final saw all eight riders finish within two seconds but it was Liam Phillips of Germany in first and Long as the top American, in fourth. Sharrah was last, he got a decent start but was last in turn one and never could recover to get back up in the field.

Despite the last place finish Sharrah still leads the overall competition through two of five events. Long is second while Connor Fields who broke a bone in his wrist and was not able to compete is still in ninth.

The next event is in Papendal, Netherlands on May 7th and 8th while the final two events are after the Olympics.