Olympians Head NZ Team to BMX World Championships

Olympians Sarah Walker and Marc Willers will lead a record New Zealand team to compete in next month’s UCI BMX World Championships in Adelaide.

Two hundred and twenty riders will compete in the championships to be staged indoors at the Adelaide Showgrounds from 20 to 26 July.

Walker (Kawerau) has picked up four world championship medals in open elite competition, finishing with a silver medal in Canada in 2007 and bronze last year in China. She also won the cruiser class world title in Canada and was third last year.

The 21 year old goes into the championships ranked No 1 in the world with fellow Rotorua clubmate Tania Carson, 21, ranked 24th and New Plymouth’s Victoria Hill, fifth in the junior elite last year, ranked 27th in her first time in elite open competition.

Nineteen year old Christchurch rider Matthew Davies is the top ranked elite male, currently ranked 17th with Olympian Willers (Cambridge) and Michael Williams (Pakuranga) both ranked 26th.

New Zealand age group competitors won five medals in the Challenge classes in China last year, with New Plymouth’s Hannah Sarten moving up to the 13 years division this year after world championship titles in both the Challenge and Cruiser classes in China in 2008.