BMX Australia press release
Sam Willoughby and Caroline Buchanan have shown themselves to be the pinnacle of the BMX athletes in Australia with wins at the Oceania Championships under lights at the Brisbane SX Track.

Spectators packed every vantage point of the track and were rewarded with a fireworks display prior to the main event. Under lights and the sound track pumping the short spectacle of colour built the atmosphere for the finals that would eventually see a complete Aussie whitewash keeping the visiting Kiwi’s at bay ahead of the World Championships in July.

Both Willoughby and Buchanan jetted back to Australia earlier this week to be a part of the week long 2013 Subaru BMX National Championships after races overseas. Sam had taken 3rd place at the opening World Cup in Manchester, while Buchanan has been swapping wheels between BMX and mountain bike and alternating between the two proved a little cumbersome at first.

“I had my gearing set a little wrong, I dropped it for the last race and noticed a massive difference. I’m feeling a lot more confident now heading into the Nationals,” Buchanan said after the race.

“Being off the bike a bit, not being on the big ramp since the London Olympics and different training was a factor, I gave it a little test and it wasn’t working, so I went back to what I know and it paid off.

“The conditions made it challenging, this is already a world class venue and they’ve stepped it up a lot with the changes they’ve made and having that wind factor made it challenging.

“There’s been some tough competition today, it came right down to the wire in that last race. It’s never over till its over and I came out when I needed it the most and got the win.”

Sam Willoughby lead home Josh Callan of Victoria while Anthony Dean of South Australia finished third and in doing so bumped Brian Kirkham leaving him crossing the line on the ground.

All day Willoughby had lead from the front with a clean sweep of every moto and then into the semi-finals. His dominance was plain to see and it kept racing exciting in seeing just how the competition would or could react.

In the Junior Men, Aaron Nottle continued his winning ways by crossing the line first and giving him the National Series win. Nottle had only dropped one round and that was back in Round 3 at Westside where he finished second. Riding in a similar style to Willoughby, he led most, if not all of his races with the rest of the field left to fight out the minor placings.

Sarah Harvey from the Pine Rivers BMX Club in Queensland held out Rachel Jones by winning 2 of the 3 motos with Jones finishing behind Harvey in all but the first. Jade Parker took 3rd place with 3 consecutive third placings.

For today’s full finals results click here.