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Newly crowned National BMX Champion, Melissa Mankowski, has given selectors a reason to keep her in mind when nominations are made for the Australian Olympic Team in June. Mankowski today proved she should not be written off as a chance of making the Beijing Olympics when the sport debuts in August. The 20 year old was desperate for the win on the final day of racing at the Adelaide Showgrounds after apprehension about riding the Supercross course last weekend saw her withdraw. 

Elite Men
1st KAMAKAZI
2nd Luke MADILL
3rd Jared GRAVES
4th Glenn CODEGA
5th Todd PASCOE
6th Alex CAMERON
7th Thomas HUBERT

USA youngster David Herman not only made his first final but won the UCI BMX World Cup Supercross in Adelaide. The 19 year old 'dark horse' of the strong American men’s team blitzed the field beating Latvian. Maris Strombergs. Third was Australian BMX Olympic hopeful, Kamakazi from Queensland. Fellow Australian finalists Luke Madill and Jared Graves finished sixth and eighth respectively. All top three riders were finalists for the first time 

Elite Men's Final
1 David Herman/USA
2 Maris Strombergs/LAT
3 Kamakazi/AUS
4 Michal Prokop/CZE
5 Raymon van der Beizen/NED
6 Luke Madill/AUS
7 Emilio Falla/ECU
8 Jared Graves/AUS 

National Champion, Tanya Bailey (Perth/Gold Coast) was the highest Australian qualifier today at the UCI BMX World Cup Supercross in Adelaide. The 27 year old Perth rider qualified fifth in the time trial with a time of 35.672 sec just one second off winner, Czech rider, Jana Horakova. Horakova rode an impressive time of 34.743s in her second run to win her first time trail in a World Cup Supercross. America's Arielle Martin gained second while world number one, Sarah Walker (NZL), qualified third fastest.

Canadian favourite, Samantha Cools, took out fourth place. Other Australian women to qualify in the top 16 places were Nicole Callisto (Perth) in ninth. Junior riders Lauren Reynolds (Bunbury) with Caroline Buchanan (Canberra) placed 10th and14th respectively. Just out of the cut off mark was Townsville’s Rachel Bracken in 17th position.

According to USA BMX Olympic coach, Mike King, the women's racing tomorrow is shaping up as an important Olympic qualifying race.

Rank - Bike Number - Name - NOC Code - Run1 - Run2 - Best Time - Time - Time Gap
1 10 ROBINSON Donny USA 30.941 30.595 30.595
2 151 STROMBERGS Maris LAT 31.041 30.670 30.670 +0.075
3 17 MADILL Luke AUS 31.296 30.674 30.674 +0.079
4 14 CALEYRON Quentin FRA 31.968 30.787 30.787 +0.192
5 12 PROKOP Michal CZE 30.886 30.794 30.794 +0.199
6 69 GODET Damien FRA 30.950 30.882 30.882 +0.287
7 365 DAY Mike USA 30.936 31.194 30.936 +0.341
8 4 CISAR Steven USA 32.230 30.958 30.958 +0.363
9 2 YOUNG Khalen AUS 30.980 35.774 30.980 +0.385
10 101 HARRIS Bubba USA 31.952 30.982 30.982 +0.387
11 11 ALLIER Thomas FRA 32.224 30.984 30.984 +0.389
12 90 MARINO Ramiro ARG 31.001 DNF 31.001 +0.406
13 129 FOX Kristopher USA 31.558 31.058 31.058 +0.463
14 53 GRAVES Jared AUS 31.062 31.160 31.062 +0.467
15 711 BRADFORD Joey USA 32.671 31.130 31.130 +0.535
16 717 JIMENEZ Andres COL 31.484 31.151 31.151 +0.556 

Australia’s Krystal Cranfield’s (AUS) fell in practice today and miss her chance of racing the UCI BMX World Cup Supercross in Adelaide over the weekend. The 21 year old landed heavily in the second straight breaking her collarbone perhaps ruining her chance of making an Olympic berth. With 43 riders entered, the Australian riders not only survived practice but impressed.

“All of the guys looked good and comfortable. Kamakazi and Jamie (Gray) said they felt good out there. Jared (Graves) was doing the first straights really well. Khalen (Young) pulled it together at the end,” said Australia's BMX Head Coach, Scott Sharples. Luke (Madill) had good sections on the track and looked smooth especially in the third strait.”

The girls impressed me today as well. Nicole Callisto dominated the practice today. She was the first girl to do the first straight and Lauren (Reynolds), the junior girl, was the second.” Even though Krystal is not on our squad, I was really keen to see her ride a Supercross event.”

Redline's robotic manualer DAKOTA SENGER has always dreamed of following in the footsteps of his Pro teammate Bubba Harris; but this is taking it a bit too far. While training for the Great Northwest Nationals in his homestate, Senger crashed hard during sprints and wound up busting up his ankle pretty hard. Wait -- make that VERY hard. Last year, 12 year old Dakota won the UCi World Champs in Victoria (on Cruiser), and ended the season with an ABA Nag No.1

Adelaide will add to its list of international Cycling events when it hosts a round of the UCI BMX World Cup Supercross this weekend. Despite being one of the last major international races before the sport debuts at the Beijing Olympics a few of the international riders are notably absent. The French’s decision to leave their women’s team at home this weekend has surprised event organizers and officials. According to UCI BMX Sports coordinator, Johan Lindstrom, “The French team is sitting comfortably in the lead of the nations ranking, but it’s still surprising that they are not taking this opportunity to race on a BMX Supercross track. There are only two more races remaining for the women leading up to the Games.”

With 18 countries and racing this weekend the French women’s team must be confident they have secured ample points to send the maximum number of riders to the Beijing 2008 Olympics which for the women are two riders. The French men are attending and are currently ranked in eight place.

Elite Men TC standings after two rounds:
1  27 NIELS TEPPER 40
2  29 JORDY VAN DER HEIJDEN 40
3  7 JELLE VAN GORKOM 23
4  2 JASPER VERKUIJL 21
5  3 EDGAR BISSELING 20
6  1 MARTIJN JASPERS 20
7  6 NIELS VERRIJT 17
8  18 HARM VAN BRUSSEL 17
9  4 KEVIN SPRENGERS 17
10  28 RICK BOK 15
11  5 RICK VAN DEN DIKKENBERG 15
12   10 KEVIN VAN DER LINDE 15
13  23 IVO VAN DER PUTTEN 15
14  8 NOUD VERSTEGEN 14
15  25 SANDER WIJNE 13
16  21 JORDY AGUES 10