
Jolliffe and Buchanan beat BMX
Olympians
Billy Jolliffe (Tamworth/Lake Macquarie)
claimed the New South Wales State BMX Championships beating famous
BMX Olympian, Luke Madill (Penrith) in a difficult final. In
Madill's first race after bowing out before the finals at the
Beijing Olympics, it was another unlucky day.
The 22 year old Joliffe from
Camden
Park won after touching
handlebars with Madill in the first berm resulting in Madill
crashing to finish in eighth place.
“Luke was ahead until we clashed then Luke came
off second best,” explained Jolliffe who was lucky to stay upright
and go on for a well deserved win.
"I was happy to win considering last year I'd
come back from America and then broke my arm in
practice."
Strong Todd Pascoe (Townsville/Campbelltown)
challenged Jolliffe in the second straight but finished in fourth
place. Second was Thomas Hubert (Maitland) and Daniel Johnstone
(Terrigal) finished third.
Caroline Buchanan (
Canberra ), won the elite women’s
state title beating New
Zealand ’s BMX Olympian Sarah
Walker and Australia
’s Olympian Nicole Callisto
(Campbelltown/Perth) on points.
Buchanan returned to BMX racing after an
absence of five months. Since then Buchanan has raced four cross at
two mountain bike World Cup events and the World Championships with
her best result being a win at the World Cup in her hometown of
Canberra a month ago.
Racing against two BMX Olympians was a
highlight for the 17 year old Buchanan.
“It was good to compete to with them (Walker
and Callisto). Even though I’d been doing mainly four cross it’s
helped me think about different lines on corners. I find I manoeuvre
my bike like I do in four cross,” explained Buchanan.
Buchanan will line up in the next national
series BMX event on the Gold Coast in January and in two weeks will
compete in the first two national rounds of the mountain bike four
cross at Sydney Olympic Park.
With 694 race entries racing was held at the
Macarthur BMX track at Elderslie. Rain made racing difficult over
the weekend however organizers only eliminated one moto/heat to fit
in a full program of racing. The 2009 NSW State Championships
will be held in Maitland.
For more info go to: http://www.bmxnsw.com.au/
For media info contact:
Sharon Payne
Media Manager
BMX
Australia
Mob +61 (0) 412 773500
sharon@bikemedia.com.au