Strong winds in Brisbane, Australia led to the cancellation of racing at the 2026 UCI BMX Racing World Championships on Sunday and six winners of the rainbow stripes were then determined from the Saturday results in what the UCI called "unprecedented circumstances".
Two-time BMX world and Olympic champion Maris Strombergs took to social media to blast the decision as "crazy" and "wrong", saying the UCI decision to cancel remaining rounds and not try to delay or reschedule competition was "a disgrace to this sport".
"The best BMX riders in the world deserve better than this. Decisions like today's damage the credibility of our sport, undermine the athletes, and send the wrong message to everyone who cares about BMX," Strombergs wrote on Instagram.
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"I'd welcome the opportunity to sit down with whoever made this decision and hear the reasoning behind it. This is crazy. It's wrong. And it needs to stop!!!"
It had been windy on Saturday for the opening rounds, which saw fields end competitions at different points. The elite men's competition went to 1/ 8 Final on Saturday, while junior races completed quarterfinals. The elite women and U23 women and men only completed first rounds and Last Chance qualifier runs. The single ‘main’ final run of the best eight riders in each division did not take place.
Strong winds then continued on Sunday, with a local marine wind warning issued by the Bureau of Meteorology in the early morning hours. While gale-force winds offshore brought huge waves into Brisbane and the Gold Coast, with lower impacts inland but still strong winds across the venue, the Brisbane SX International BMX Centre at the Sleeman Sports Complex.
"Following multiple delays and repeated assessments of the prevailing conditions, it was determined that racing could not be conducted safely within the available competition window," the UCI said in a statement.
"The decision to cancel the remainder of the competition programme was taken in the interest of rider safety, with the support of the UCI Athletes' Commission representative on site, the National Federation team managers and the Local Organising Committee."
The new world champions were then confirmed from limited rounds using the best times from the most recently completed heats from Saturday.
With the best score after three rounds, Jesse Asmus of Australia was crowned the elite men's BMX world champion on Sunday when the UCI cancelled additional rounds. Great Britain's Ross Cullen claimed the silver medal, while France's Mathis Ragot Richard took bronze.
In the elite women's category, Olympic champion Bethany Shriever of Great Britain added another rainbow jersey to her collection with the best score after Round 1. Australia's Saya Sakakibara earned the silver medal while the Netherlands' Laura Smulders completed the podium in third.
Asmus, a 23-year-old rider from the Gold Coast, used his technical abilities to win both his first round and 1/8 Final heats. He said knowing there was a bad weather forecast for the next day gave him motivation for Saturday.
"I had an inkling yesterday that the weather wasn’t looking good, so I knew the plan was to lay down some good laps and go as fast as I could. It turns out that strategy played in my favour pretty well," he said in an AusCycling statement.
"I feel like it's not the way we all wanted it to go; but it's still good to get it done. I feel like I've been making really good strides in my riding lately and it [a world title] was going to come eventually. But to happen right now, especially in front of the home crowd, it doesn't feel real yet."
In the under-23 category, Australia's Joshua Jolly won the men's world title while Dutch rider Renske van Santvoort won the women's U23 title. Great Britain's Freia Challis claimed the Women Junior title while Lucas Zhou of Canada took the Men Junior title.
Training runs on Sunday were initially postponed and rescheduled for 2:30 p.m. local time, with competitions expected to start afterwards at 4:00 p.m. However, winds did not calm and the UCI then made the decision to end the competition for safety reasons.
