Matt Walker led a British one-two in the medals in the Junior Downhill World Championships in a weekend of crashes and upsets that saw many favourites derailed by crashes on a tough, dry and dusty course.
In the Junior men, it was gold and silver as Matt Walker and Joe Breeden took top honours in the Junior Men’s Downhill. The top ten was also stacked with Brits with Kaos Seagrave in fifth and Henry Kerr in ninth.
Other categories weren’t as Brit-filled: Maya Atkinson managed 11th place and the senior men’s and women’s categories
Full results from the weekend can be found here on the UCI website
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Walker set a time of 3:37.796 on a technical course in Australia with Breeden behind him in 3:41.244 to complete a fantastic British double.
“It’s feels pretty incredible at the minute,” Walker said. “It’s not sunk in by a long way. I’m over the moon, I’ve worked so hard for it. It’s been a dream of mine since I’ve been small so to finally get it done at the last chance was pretty incredible.
“I’m stoked that I made it – I’ve got a rainbow jersey.”
The medal sees Great Britain end the championships with three medals – one gold and two silver medals – the first silver coming from Annie Last’s historic elite women’s cross-country result.
Tahnee Seagrave saw her medal hopes end with a crash in the elite women’s event. The 22-year-old, the fastest rider in the official timed session, went down after leading through the first time split but was able to complete her run for 10th. Seagrave, who has won three world cup rounds this season, was Britain’s sole representative after defending champion Rachel Atherton broke her collarbone in the timed run on Friday.
Canada’s Miranda Miller was crowned world champion with France’s Myriam Nicole second and Australia’s Tracey Hannah third.
In the senior men’s race, there was more disappointment as Adam Brayton was the highest British man in 13th place. Greg Williamson was 14th, Danny Hart 16th and Gee Atherton 18th. It just wasn’t their weekend and the men’s race was won by Loic Bruni just ahead of Mick Hannah, with Gwin taking bronze.
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Great work by all the guys and girls that represented GB in Cairns. So happy and proud of Matt’s achievement yesterday, such a great guy who’s given his all from the start with Saracen. A huge congrats must go to Madison Saracen as well for the Development team. Matt has come through as a talented juvenile to Junior World Champion. Onwards into the elites next year so definitely one to watch.