Flash Result  UCI BMX World Championships

New Zealand’s Sarah Walker has won the bronze medal in the UCI BMX World Championships in China on Saturday night(NZ time).

Walker, the world number one ranked rider, finished third behind Great Britain’s Shanaze Reade and Anne-Caroline Chausson (France) in the final in Taiyuan.

The BikeNZ rider, who drew the middle of the front line in the final, had to recover after a collision in the all-important first corner.

While defending champion Reade and Chausson went clear, Walker was pushed back to fifth but forced her way to the bronze medal after narrowly avoiding a crash ahead of her coming out of the final corner.

Reade, who won the silver medal behind Reade last year, will defend her Cruiser class world championship tomorrow.

Earlier fellow BikeNZ rider Marc Willers was knocked out in the quarterfinals of the elite men’s competition, when he came down in a physical heat battling for position at the first corner.

BikeNZ high performance rider Victoria Hill (New Plymouth) was fifth in the junior women’s elite final.