Kiwi’s fifth world title, aged 12
Cambridge 12-year-old Leila Walker has continued her remarkable run of performances to win a fifth straight UCI BMX World Championship title in the United States.
Walker won the girls’ 12 years title on the first day of the Challenge Class (age-group) racing at the Rock Hill BMX Centre in South Carolina.
She won her age-group world title for eight-year-olds at Auckland in 2013, nine years at Rotterdam in 2014, 10 years at Zolder, Belgium in 2015, 11 years in Colombia last year and now for 12-year-olds at South Carolina.
Walker cleared out from the start, winning all three of her qualifying motos, the quarterfinal, semifinal and then dominated the final in a strong field against three American riders, two from Colombia and one each from Peru and the Netherlands.
Five Kiwi riders earned World Championship Plates and Finals Trophies for top-eight placings on Thursday (NZ time).
Auckland’s Meg Cannon from the East City club finished third in the 5-7 years class, after winning won all three motos and her quarterfinal before placing third in both the semifinal and final.
Auckland’s Sacha Earnest (Mountain Raiders club), a threetime world champion, won her motos and eighth final in the 11 years class.
She was second in both the quarterfinal and semifinal, but got caught up after the start in the final, going on to finish sixth.
Lily Greenough from Cambridge, racing in the 10 years category, was another to win her motos, placing third in the semifinal and also getting caught up in the hustle and bustle off the start of the final, finishing eighth.