FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

world and myself I am the best racer in the world.

Vector Arena hosted the race and it was very different to any competition anyone has ever done. Olympic standard tracks are generally around 40 seconds long and the track in New Zealand was roughly 25 seconds long. It was tight, fast, different and everything was very small making it quite challenging to ride fast.

I came into the time trial event as the reigning World Champion and knew it was going to very tight times for the medal positions. I was glad that my mountain bike cornering skills came into play on the tight turns. I laid down a fast time but it wasn't enough for the gold medal. Colombia's Mariana Pajon won with USA's Alise Post claiming the silver medal and myself winning the bronze.

I was a little disappointed about giving away my time trail World Championships but was excited to break my time trail winning streak and was aiming for gold in Sunday's racing.

Coming into Sunday's racing, the girls with a top 8 world ranking from last year were protected and did not have to do the qualifying heats. The top 8 ranked riders and myself came into the racing action in the quarter finals. I won my quarter final progressing into the semi final and then won my semi with the fastest lap time setting me up with first lane selection for the final. Not going to make the same mistake as I did one year ago at the Olympic Games which was the last UCI international BMX event that I raced. I chose lane one next to the favourite 2012 Olympic gold medalist Marianna Pajon of Colombia.

When it comes to finals you’ve got to release the mongrel and get aggressive. I just wanted to get out front and stay out of trouble on this track which had been causing so much carnage.

I got a great start, that's been something that we have been working on and had great confidence that it was not going to let me down. I got out in front and led from the start all the way to the line with a huge Australian and Kiwi crowd cheering me all the way home. It was a huge relief to finally achieve a goal that I have had since the age of five and I continue to watch the race over and over again with a big smile on my face.



A huge thank you to all of my supporters over the years, past and current sponsors, my family and friends especially those who have got me through quite a tough month leading into this race, the Australian Institute of Sport, all of my fans and the amazing support of Australia. I have been overwhelmed with the amount of messages I have recieved since.

-Caroline Buchanan