James Jones and Ben Wallace are within striking distance of UCI Urban Cycling World Championships glory after reaching the BMX Freestyle Park final in Chengdu.
The British pair qualified in fourth and fifth place respectively to comfortably sit inside Saturday’s semi-final top 12, with a place in Sunday’s final their reward for a strong showing.
Four British riders went into the semi-finals as Jack Clark and last year’s silver medallist Alex Coleborn also unleashed their box of tricks in China.
But the two missed out on the grand finale in a highly-competitive field, both finishing within a solitary point of 12th place.
While the women’s semi-finals also saw plenty of British interest with Izzy Burrell, Val Ward and Emma Finnegan all representing the Great Britain Cycling Team.
Jones and Wallace ready for final showdown
After a hugely impressive qualifying performance which had seen three riders occupy the top five spots, all eyes were on the British team to see if they could carry on their form.
Indeed Jones topped the qualification scores with two consistent efforts and he once again delivered to reach Sunday’s final.
Having the honour of being last to compete, the 24-year-old certainly made the most of it – with his score of 89.00 seeing him lead at the halfway stage.
A second effort of 42.00 ensured his first score would be his best, and while three riders hit the 90-point mark, the Swansea rider still took fourth spot from the semi-final.
That was just one place ahead of teammate Wallace, who begin with a solid foundation score of 80.20 from his first run.
That on its own would have been enough to make the top 12 but the 32-year-old was not done there, showing his experience to increase his score to 86.80 and ride into sixth place.
It wasn’t to be for 2017 silver medallist Coleborn however, scoring 24.80 in his first effort before improving to 78.90 in the second run to hit 15th.
Clark, meanwhile, was one place up the rankings in 14th spot with 78.90 and 79.00 his scores, agonisingly shot of doing battle within the top 12.
Hands out if you're in the @UCI_BMX_FS World Championship final
— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) November 10, 2018
Awesome stuff from @Benwallacebmx and @Jamesjones_bmx in reaching tomorrow's grand finale at #Chengdu2018
( @Benwallacebmx) pic.twitter.com/8lylIwxQvV
British trio ready for more after Worlds showing
A place in the final may not have come their way but Izzy Burrell, Val Ward and Emma Finnegan will all be back for more after their efforts in Chengdu.
All three comfortably made it through qualification, with Ward’s score of 55.35 – the average of her two runs – seeing her lead the way for the Brits in 15th place.
All the stops would therefore have to be pulled out if a place in the top 12 was to be secured, with Burrell in particular finding a new level in the semi-final en route to scoring 58.20.
That was thanks to a strong first run, with the 17-year-old performing beyond her years to finish with the 16th best score of the competition.
Ward was in 21st while Finnegan was unable to better her qualifying score, finishing 23rd.
Wallace and Jones' BMX Freestyle Park World Championship final will be live on the BBC red button and online from 5am on Sunday
