BMX Racing World Cup 2024: Australia’s Saya Sakakibara and Izaac Kennedy crowned champions
Sakakibara won the final round of racing in Tulsa for her fourth win of the 2024 series while for Kennedy, a second-place finish was enough to top the overall leaderboard.
Cycling BMX Racing
Australian cyclists Saya Sakakibara and Izaac Kennedy won the overall titles at the BMX Racing World Cup 2024 following their impressive performances at the sixth and final round of races in Tulsa, United States, on Sunday.
Sakakibara led the women’s elite final from the start and finished the BMX race in 38.945s. It marked her fourth win from six World Cup races this year. The win also helped the Tokyo Olympian secure the overall title for the second straight year with 2860 points - nearly 900 points ahead of overall runners-up Manon Veenstra of the Netherlands.
“It just goes to show everything I'm doing back at home is really working,” Sakakibara said after completing the race. “I'm really rehearsing my mental process for each race weekend, and each experience like this is just evidence that I can kind of look back upon when the pressure situations come at Worlds and Games later on this year.”
Izaac Kennedy, meanwhile, clinched the men’s overall title with two second-place finishes in Tulsa over the weekend. Kennedy won the third round in Brisbane and accumulated 1787 points in six races - just 23 more than Cedric Butti of Switzerland.
Apart from winning the overall elite races, Australia also claimed victories in the under-23 race categories with Teya Rufus (women’s U23) and Oliver Moran (men’s U23) standing atop the overall podiums. It was the first time any nation had won all four categories in the same year.
The next major stop for the high-flying Australian BMX cyclists will be the UCI World Championships 2024 in Rock Hill, USA scheduled from May 16 to 18.