Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva has shone on Olympic debut, displaying vibrant energy and creative routines at the Rhythmic Gymnastics Individual All-Around qualifications.
Soon to be four-time Olympian Lauren Reynolds will have the full support of her hometown BMX club who told the Times they are proud of their champion rider.
Reynolds joined the club in 1999 as an eight-year-old. Bunbury BMX Club spokesperson saying it has been an honour to watch their “Lozza” grow up, and keep her passion for riding.
“Lauren is the definition of hard work and determination,” the spokesperson said.
A four-time Australian all-around champion, 2022 Commonwealth Games clubs champion, team silver medalist, and all-around bronze medalist, Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva won the all-around at the 2024 Oceania Championships and will represent Australia at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
New South Wales Rhythmic gymnast Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva has come out on top at the Oceania Continental Championships, scoring a 120.700 in the All-Around competition held in Budapest.
Split over two days of competition, Day 1 saw Alexandra start her campaign strong with an impressive Hoop routine scoring 31.450, followed by 30.950 with the Ball.
Alexandra, or Sasha as she is known to many, continued her domination on Day 2, with a score of 31.000 for Clubs and 27.300 with Ribbon - cementing her place at the top.
Georgia Baker and Alex Manly’s last minute heroics in the women’s Madison led the ARA Australian Cycling Team showing on the second day of racing in Adelaide at the Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup.
In stifling conditions, Baker and Manly continued to prove themselves as one of the best Madison pairings in the world, winning Australia’s only medal for the day.
Their 27 points earned them a silver medal behind Great Britain duo Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald, with the Australian taking a big chunk of learnings from another vital Madison performance before the Paris Olympics.
“It was a solid ride out there. It was really hot in the velodrome as well, but I thought we raced a pretty technically good race, and we learned a lot,” Baker said.
“The main thing for us is like a lot of our strong competitors are here, and so it's also learning how they race as well.”
“Also, how we like felt on the gears, because that all goes into what we're going to choose to do at the Olympics,” Manly added.
Australian freerider Harriet "Haz" Burbidge-Smith will be riding for Canyon in 2024.
The Red Bull athlete, two-time amateur BMX World Champion and eight-time Australian Champion will be joining Sam Soriano, Tim Bringer, Olivia Silva, Ryan McNulty, Kaos Seagrave and Fabio Wibmer in the Canyon CLLCTV freeride stable.
Her main bikes will be the Canyon Stitched and Torque and she'll be kicking off her season at Darkfest and Red Bull Hardline before heading to New Zealand for Slopestyle, Speed & Style and Dual Slalom competitions at Crankworx Rotorua. She will compete in all four rounds of the Crankworx World Tour.
Stage winner Alex Manly and Ruby Roseman-Gannon again loom as the trump cards for home team Jayco AlUla at the Tour Down Under.
Manly and Roseman-Gannon were confirmed in a team featuring five Australian cyclists for the January 12-14 Adelaide event.
Manly won stage two this year and took the race lead, only for Grace Brown and Amanda Spratt to crack her on the decisive Corkscrew climb at the end of the third and final stage.
Australian duo Georgia Baker and Alex Manly have committed to Team Jayco AlUla by extending their contracts to see them through to the end of 2024.
The pair returned to the team in 2022 after previously racing with the Australian squad before switching their attention to the track and the Tokyo Olympics. Manly has gone on to shown her qualities on the road since her return with several strong results, including a stage win at the Tour Down Under earlier this season, plus four stage wins and the overall victory at the Thüringen Ladies Tour in 2022.
Being on a mountain bike makes Harriet Burbidge-Smith happy. The 27-year-old mountain bike freeride athlete has emerged in recent years to be one of the leading lights in the women's mountain bike scene.
But mountain biking wasn't her first love. Burbidge-Smith's first rides were on a BMX race bike, and the Australian experienced a pro career there at a high level, before she made the switch to competing in mountain biking events five years ago. Creative fulfilment, recognition and success have come quickly since she made the switch.
This is how, 'Haz', as she's affectionally known by family, friends and competitors, got to her happy place..
Though her victory may have been somewhat overshadowed by the drama surrounding Ryan Gilchrist’s crash, let’s not take anything away from Harriet Burbidge-Smith. She was the best woman in the Boneyard on Thursday, outperforming the likes of Caroline Buchanan and Jill Kintner—with five Queen of Crankworx titles between them.
Not that fans were necessarily surprised. Burbidge-Smith has been the Empress of Dual Slalom this year with three gold medals from Rotorua, Cairns and now Whistler. She knocked out Georgia Astle, then Ellie Smith, then eventual bronze medallist Martha Gill en route to a finals date with Louise Ferguson. While the Scottish contender was game, Australia’s Burbidge-Smith prevailed in both of their runs to stand atop the podium.
AFTER more than 20 years of BMX racing, Harriet (“Haz”) Burbidge-Smith, 27, was invited to experience something new.
“I spent the first years of my professional career doing BMX, but I got invited to a mountain bike event about four years ago, and I kind of fell in love with it, I felt like it fit my vibe better,” she says.
“So, I made the decision to switch to mountain biking, leaving all my sponsors and support from BMX, and starting fresh.”
Newcastle snowboarder Michaela Davis-Meehan put down a winning run in her search for a finals berth on the Freeride World Tour over the weekend.
The Kotara local was a wildcard entry to the 2023 competition and kicked off her campaign at the Baqueira Beret Pro in Spain last month with a fifth place finish. On the second stop in Andorra, which had previously been a happy hunting ground for the 31-year-old, she slipped to last in the Ordino Arcalís Pro.
At the bottom of the overall rankings, Davis-Meehan needed victory at Canada’s Kicking Horse to have any hope of surviving the cut and she proved clutch under pressure.
Dropping in first after a fresh dusting of snow, the natural-footer impressed with back-to-back airs in a steep and exposed section of the course, before speeding through some powder turns for a score of 10,000 points.
Local Adelaide rider Alex Manly stormed to a special and empathic stage victory for Team Jayco AlUla on today’s stage two of the Women’s WorldTour race, the Santos Tour Down Under.
Setting the mood early on the 90km stage from Birdwood to Uraidla, Manly picked up two seconds on the intermediate sprint, a true sign of her general classification ambitions.
Alex Manly and her team know a fierce challenge from Amanda Spratt will have a big say in whether she wins the women's Tour Down Under.
Manly stormed to the overall lead on Monday by winning the second stage at Uraidla in the Adelaide Hills.
The 26-year-old Australian holds an eight-second lead in the overall standings ahead of Tuesday's third and final stage.
That 93.2km stage from Adelaide to Campbelltown features the tough Corkscrew climb, where Spratt and other rivals are sure to ask stern questions of Manly.
The Freeride World Tour has announced Australian snowboarder Michaela Davis-Meehan as a season wildcard for 2023 competition.
Davis-Meehan commenced her Freeride World Tour journey on the Freeride World Qualifiers back in 2016 and competed for three years before securing a place on the 2020 Freeride World Tour.
Her rookie year saw her take a first place podium in Ordino Arcalis and a second place podium at Hakuba and Fierberbrunn, finishing second on the leader board at the end of the tour.
After an incredible season on the road, the Team BikeExchange-Jayco rider talks about how her cycling career started in an Australian swamp, the mountain paradise she wants to escape to, and the power of the mind
Canberra cycling prodigy Harriet Burbidge-Smith had been on her BMX bike for almost two decades, ever since she was a four-year-old. “My parents realised even at that age I was really enjoying the bike,” she recalls. “They looked up local activities and the BMX club was one of them. They took me there and I couldn’t stay away.”
Burbidge-Smith, known simply as “Haz” in the BMX community, was an instant hit. “From a very young age I was going overseas to compete,” she says. The Australian won two amateur world championships and eight national crowns. A future of success beckoned – Olympic and world titles were within her grasp. And then she stopped.
“You have some wins, and it’s cool, but that one was special.” This from Australia’s Harriet Burbidge-Smith, who brought home the W tonight in head-to-head Speed & Style Cairns racing at Smithfield MTB Park.
With Crankworx heading to Australia, Harriet Burbidge-Smith talks us through everything her country has to offer, from gnarly lines and an amazing atmosphere to versatile environments.
Rising Australian cycling star Alex Manly has made the general classification podium at a WorldTour event for the first time with an excellent third place at the inaugural Tour of Scandinavia.
Fresh from helping Australian teammate Georgia Baker take the Commonwealth Games road race title, 26-year-old Manly produced a series of stand-out performances during the six-day race, including four top-five stage finishes and a maiden WorldTour stage win.