Jolliffe and Buchanan beat BMX Olympians

Oct 09, 2008

Written by Bart de Jong

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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.