World champion Maris Strombergs of Latvia won the men's BMX gold yesterday, sweeping to the front at the start of the winner-take-all final and never losing control in the sport's first-ever Olympic finals.

The French duo of Anne-Caroline Chausson and Laetitia Le Corguille took gold and silver, respectively, in the women's title race.

"It wasn't easy," said Chausson. "All the mistakes I've made in the last few races, in the last few years, I tried to show nothing of them in these games."

"It's really the work of two years to end up here. It's an immense satisfaction to get to here," said Chausson, 30, for whom this was the last competitive BMX race.

The day was filled with crashes, especially in Turn 1, a tight, banked, asphalt bend where mayhem broke out with amazing regularity.

The men's final came down to a race to the first turn, and Strombergs was the best. Day and Robinson stood on their pedals and chased with all they had, but the Latvian never slipped.

Strombergs said the most important thing was that the time he set in the final run of the semi-final allowed him to choose his gate in the final.

"I needed the fast lane, and I did it," he said.

In the women's race, the favourite was two-time world champion Shanaze Reade of Britain, who came back from a crash in the first run of the semi-final to qualify with the best time and the choice of gate in the final.

But she was behind Chausson coming into the final turn and as she tried to get past she clipped the Frenchwoman's wheel and went down.