Josh Jolly and Teya Rufus win junior world championships for Australia at 2024 UCI BMX Racing World Championships

Australia’s BMX Racing future continues to look bright, with the crowning of ARA Australian Cycling Team’s Teya Rufus and Josh Jolly as respective junior women and men world champions at the 2024 UCI BMX Racing World Championships in Rock Hill, USA.

Rufus (Maryborough BMX) commanded the junior women decider from start to finish.

The 17-year-old made an almost perfect start from gate 1, and despite the desperate efforts of Lily Greenough (NZL) to catch the Queensland phenom, Rufus wouldn’t be denied, holding on for a comfortable win.

The world championship crown completes a remarkable 2024 UCI season for Rufus, who also won the Under-23 Women’s World Cup in her debut year, and it was clear the newly crowned world champion was still coming to terms with the result after the race.

“This is such a dream, it's honestly just so insane,” Rufus said.

“I think this is what we train for, this is what we want to do, but when actually happens it’s just unbelievable. Yeah, I can’t even wrap my head around it just yet.”

Celebrations continued shortly after when Jolly won the junior men title in similarly dominant fashion.

Despite a lacklustre start, the Victorian made a fantastic move into the first corner, diving underneath his rivals to slingshot into the lead. From there, the 18-year-old powered away from his opponents, winning by more than a second.

After the race, Jolly revealed he replicated a similar first-corner move on the USA BMX pro tour earlier this year.

“I’ve been putting down pretty good laps all weekend. Didn't have the best of gates, so got a bit nervous on that one, but managed to pull it back,” Jolly said.

“I pulled that (first corner) move on one of the USA BMX Nationals, so I knew I could do it and it paid off. I can't believe it.”

Australia then made it three podiums from three starts, with a bronze medal in the under-23 women.

In a tightly contested race, Bella May (Frankston BMX) worked hard down the opening straight to emerge from the first corner in third place. Despite fighting desperately to catch the pair ahead of her, May couldn’t make up ground and took bronze behind Veronika Sturiska (LAT) and Emily Hutt (GBR).

Australia then held their breath for the elite women final, with world number 1 Saya Sakakibara starting from Gate 2. However, the back-to-back UCI World Cup champion never recovered from a poor start, battling to stay in contention by the first corner.

Her race didn’t improve from there, forced wide and off the track coming out of the second corner, and the 24-year-old watched on from the back of the field as Alise Willoughby (USA) won her third world title in front of an ecstatic home crowd.

The weekend was also tinged with sadness due to the ARA Australian Cycling Team being dealt a double blow in the elite men category before racing had even begun with Izaac Kennedy and Jack Davis both late withdrawals from the event.

Davis was unable to recover from fractures in his lower back sustained at the last World Cup round in Tulsa, while Kennedy’s Olympic hopes now hang in the balance after fracturing his wrist in a crash during a practice session at the South Carolina venue.

Nonetheless, Australia had high hopes after the opening day of racing on Friday. Under overcast but calm conditions, ten out of 13 ARA Australian Cycling Team riders progressed through their Round 1 and 1/8 Finals to move on to the second day.

Australia again started positively on the final day of racing, with four riders progressing through their quarter- and semi-finals to earn a spot in their championship decider.

However, Aussies hopes were dealt a triple-blow in the under-23 men semi-finals, as Oli Moran (Manning Valley BMX), Jesse Asmus (Nerang BMX), and Jordan Callum (Hills BMX) all failed to advance due to a series of crashes and bad luck.

Racing concluded with the elite men final, where Joris Daudet (FRA) also won his third world title, over 2020 Olympic champion Niek Kimmann (NED) and countryman Sylvain Andre (FRA).

The final international event on the 2024 BMX Racing calendar is the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, with competition set to take place from August 1-2 at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines BMX Stadium.

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Main Image: Derek Betcher/SpeedCo BMX