BMX World Championships Media Release

 No: bmx1005

17 May 2010

 
Sifiso Nhlapo to spearhead SA challenge at UCI BMX World Champs

Pietermaritzburg -  With just over 10 weeks to go, the countdown to the UCI BMX World Championships in Pietermaritzburg has begun and the top riders are working to strict training schedules to make sure they are peaking and ready to challenge for the year’s most important race.

The Elite and Junior men’s and women’s World Championship events takes place on the purpose-built track in the Royal Show Grounds on Saturday July 31, but practice for all riders starts on Tuesday July 27 with racing for all the other classes starting on Thursday July 29 and running through to Sunday August 1.

One man who will be desperate to win in Pietermaritzburg is sure to be Sifiso Nhlapo. The South African Olympic finalist suffered a frustrating year in 2009 after a massive crash while training halted his steady rise up through the international ranks.

Nhlapo, who finished third in the 2008 World Championships in China and seventh at the Beijing Olympic Games, is back on the track and challenging the big guns. As well as being South Africa’s poster boy for BMX, he is also the host country’s big hope for glory at the Pietermaritzburg event so the SA BMX community were well pleased with the 23-year-old’s semi-final finish at the World Cup in Denmark earlier this month.

But Nhlapo will have to be at his very best to record a sentimental home victory. Although one of his biggest challengers, 2009 World Champion Donny Robinson is currently injured and it is not certain if he will be in Pietermaritzburg to defend his title, there are plenty of other riders who are building up to challenge for the world champion’s crown.

With two World Cup events completed so far this season, the rider who has pushed his name to the head of the list of riders to beat is reigning Olympic Champion, Latvian Maris Strombergs, who recently won the World Cup in Copenhagen, Denmark, and heads the 2010 World Cup standings.

The world’s top ranked rider is 19-year-old Sam Willoughby. He cruised to victory in the opening World Cup event in Madrid earlier this year and had it not been for a crash in the semi-finals, would surely have been in contention for a repeat victory in Copenhagen.

In the women’s category Frenchwomen Laëtitia le Corguillé has two World Cup victories in a row and is shaping up to be the women to beat

The UCI BMX World Championships takes place at the Royal Showgrounds in Pietermaritzburg from 29 July to 1 August. More information can be found at www.bmxworldchampspmb.co.za

ENDS

Sifiso Nhlapo will be part of the concerted South African Challenge at the 2010 UCI World Championships starting on 29 July at the Royal Showgrounds in Pietermaritzburg.

Mark Squire/
Gameplan Media