Cycling: BMX world stars to jump into city

Sarah Walker leads the pack. Photo / Rotorua Daily Post

New Zealand will get a taste of the frenetic world of BMX when Auckland's Vector Arena hosts the 2013 world championships.

A joint bid from BMX New Zealand, Auckland City Council and the Government got the green light from world governing body UCI.

A purpose-built track will be use 5000-6000 cu m of dirt for the expected four-day championships covering age group and elite classes, set down for mid-July.

Traditionally that is an off-peak tourism time, so there are hopes of a decent upswing at a quiet time of year for the city.

About 4500 competitors, officials and supporters are expected for an event which made its maiden Olympic Games appearance in Beijing two years ago.

"Although BMX has slowly made its way into the Kiwi public eye, it will bring so much more attention to the sport," New Zealand's double world champion Sarah Walker said yesterday. "Hopefully it will create more excitement about our sport."

BikeNZ high performance director Mark Elliott is enthused about hosting the event, which will follow the world junior track championships in Invercargill in 2012.

"This will continue to escalate the growth of our sport and greatly benefit the future champions we will see leading on the world stage through to the Rio Olympics in 2016," Elliott said.

Elliott pointed to a "strong group" of 15- to 17-year-old BMX riders who are making strides towards BikeNZ's high performance programme.

"The timing of this world championship will see a number of these athletes pushing to showcase their potential on home soil."

Announcements on funding plans are expected shortly but BikeNZ chief executive Kieran Turner is confident the event won't burn a massive hole in the organisation's pocket.

"In the scheme of major world championships in the biking world it's not ridiculously expensive, but certainly it's over $1 million," he said.

"We have good backing from Major Events (part of the Ministry of Economic Development) and Auckland City, and wouldn't have been bidding without them.

"It's a major coup for us, great for the economy but also great for our development pathway," Turner added.