Cambridge siblings Jack (front), Bennett (middle) and Lily Greenough (not pictured) will compete at the 2024 UCI BMX Racing World Championships. Photo / Photosport
Cambridge siblings Jack (front), Bennett (middle) and Lily Greenough (not pictured) will compete at the 2024 UCI BMX Racing World Championships. Photo / Photosport
Five Waikato riders have been named in the team of 12 to represent New Zealand a this year’s UCI BMX Racing World Championships in the US next month.
The championships will be held for a second time at Rock Hill, South Carolina, from May 12 to 18, and include elite, under-23 and under-19 categories, along with challenge age classes.
Cambridge’s Leila Walker will lead the way in the female’s elite class with Te Awamutu’s Brooke Penny in the Under-23 and Cambridge’s Lily Greenough in the Junior.
Lily’s older brothers, Bennett and Jack, will compete in the men’s Under-23 section.
The Greenough brothers will look to continue their strong start to the season in the under-23 class, after both won finals in Rotorua at the UCI BMX Racing World Cup with Bennett currently second and Jack fourth in the 2024 under-23 world rankings.
Last year’s under-23 world championship medallists from Glasgow, Megan Williams (Rotorua) and Rico Bearman (North Harbour), will now compete in the elite category.
They are joined in elite racing by North Harbour’s Michael Bias and Walker.
Williams made the elite quarterfinals in all four rounds at the UCI BMX Racing World Cups in Rotorua and Brisbane while Walker, still eligible to compete in the under-23 class, made the elite semifinals in Brisbane and was runner-up at the Oceania Championships.
Bias, coming off an impressive sixth placing in round four of the UCI World Cup in Brisbane after making the semifinal on the previous day, is the only Kiwi elite team rider who competed in the 2017 World Championships at Rock Hill.
Leila Walker during the 2023 Oceania BMX Championships in Rotorua. Photo / Aaron Gillions
Bearman, who has returned to his pro team in the American national BMX Racing competition, was a quarterfinalist in three of the four World Cup rounds in Rotorua and Brisbane.
The Challenge age group racing runs from May 12 to 15 with the Championship decided on May 17-18 with the first round and last-chance races on day one along with the one-eighth finals male riders.
The titles will be decided through quarter-finals, semis and finals on the second day.
