Hannah Roberts, Logan Martin take BMX Freestyle Park titles at 2024 UCI Urban Cycling World Championships
Roberts claimed her sixth world title and fifth in a row, while Tokyo 2020 Olympic champ Martin won his third world gold. Both had missed out on the podium at Paris 2024.
Cycling BMX Freestyle
Both Hannah Roberts and Logan Martin know what it's like to win major BMX Freestyle Park titles. And both also know the feeling of missing out, having each finished outside of the medal positions at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
But on Saturday (21 December) in Abu Dhabi, Roberts and Martin got to return to winning ways, clinching their sixth and third world titles respectively at the 2024 UCI Urban Cycling World Championships.
For Roberts, it was a remarkable fifth world title in a row, dating back to 2019; Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Martin added to gold medals he won in 2017 and 2021.
U.S. favourite Roberts laid down the best score of the entire women's final in her first run, scoring a 95.70 that no-one managed to better. Sun Sibei of People's Republic of China came close with a 94.06, but she fell early in her second run and wasn't able to register an improved score.
Sun led five Chinese athletes in a row who finished from second through sixth, with Fan Xiaotong taking bronze on 93.72. Paris 2024 Olympic champion Deng Yawen and silver medallist Perris Benegas did not compete, while the bronze medallist, Australia's Natalya Diehm, finished ninth.
Diehm's compatriot Martin, meanwhile, had a nervous wait to see if his score of 94.30 from his second run would hold up. With his starting bib number six, Martin was in the first half of finalists and took both his runs before others, including Paris Olympic gold medallist José Torres Gil, competed.
Torres Gil's first run of 91.60 put him into provisional second place. However, like Sun in the women's final, the Argentine made a mistake early on in his second attempt and didn't continue, meaning his 91.60 held as his scoring result for a silver medal.
USA's Justin Dowell won bronze on 90.74, while Paris 2024 silver medallist Kieran Reilly of Great Britain was fifth.