Olympic medal contenders from BMX will descend upon Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena for the 2012 UCI World Championships, with Liam Phillips and Shanaze Reade leading the British team into battle from May 24-27 and tickets are selling fast.
Spectators are being advised to pre-book their tickets as allocations to see over 2000 competitors race on a handcrafted track inside the NIA are already over 75% full. Organisers promise will be the biggest and best BMX show in 2012, as riders compete for the final time before the London Olympics.
Olympian and three times winner of the UCI BMX World Championships Shanaze Reade is already excited for the occasion.
“I’m really looking forward to competing in Birmingham and taking another World Championships title would be great preparation before the Olympics. I’m really excited about competing in my home country at major competitions twice this year.”
THE EVENT
The event has two different standards of rider competing, including an elite racing ‘Championships’ competition and the amateur ‘Challenge’ class. Whilst tickets can be bought across the whole Championships, the organisers have packed most of the finals into two showcase nights of racing and entertainment including music from international DJ Christian Stevenson. ‘Challenge’ class finals and elite time trials will be the focal point of the Friday evening, whilst Saturday night will see the Elite Championship finals, where the world’s best riders will race elbow to elbow for the honour of wearing the rainbow stripes of World Champion for the next 12 months.
A BMX Racing track will be built from scratch in the NIA over just one week leading into the competition, building dirt jumps and trails to replicate an outside BMX track, with capacity to seat an audience of over 4,000 spectators.
Steve Hollingworth, Assistant Director of Sport & Events at Birmingham City Council said, "In what is a huge year for the sport of BMX, hosting the BMX World Championships is yet another major event to further enhance Birmingham's reputation as a World Class Sporting City. The sport of BMX is rapidly growing in popularity in the city and the legacy of the BMX World Championships can be appreciated with the newly built Birmingham BMX Track at Perry Park which opened last year.”
Jonny Clay, Event Director for the UCI BMX World Championships said, "The 2012 BMX World Championships is the latest in a string of major events that British Cycling has successfully bid for in recent years. We can already see the legacy of the event here in Birmingham with the creation of the new International BMX facility at Perry Park. It’s really exciting that the World Championships are in Birmingham this year, only months before the Olympics.”
To get tickets and for further information go to www.bmxworldchamps.com or follow @BMXWorlds on Twitter.
