Ben Wallace and James Jones once again delivered on the global stage with impressive BMX Freestyle Park performances at the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships.
The two comfortably made the final in Chengdu but weren’t done there with one last set of tricks up their sleeve in their bid to follow in Alex Coleborn’s silver-medal footsteps from 12 months ago.
A place on the podium was narrowly out of reach for the Brits however, with Wallace finishing in fifth spot after his second run.
While teammate Jones was just a position behind in sixth place, with both impressing throughout the competition in China.
One final show from British pair
Jones qualified ahead of his teammate from the semi-finals but both knew they would have to find another level should a place in the top three be theirs.
And for Jones it started on a strong note, a score of 81.60 a solid foundation from which he was keen to build on heading into the second run.
A first effort of 60.80 from Wallace ensured that he had to pull out all the stops in the second run, with three riders breaching 88 points after their opening attempts.
But while the rest of the top seven could not improve on their first efforts, Jones and Wallace certainly could.
All good vibes here as Team GB members congratulate James Jones with a provisional 5️th place at #Chengdu2018 pic.twitter.com/Z5kmhuqMZt
— UCI BMX Freestyle (@UCI_BMX_FS) November 11, 2018
Wallace threatens a podium push
Indeed 32-year-old Wallace saw a marked change in fortunes, his score of 86.20 temporarily taking him into the bronze medal position with four riders to go.
He wasn’t able to hang on with two riders surpassing him in the final set, while Jones also improved on his score by three points – his 84.60 tally enough for sixth place.
Victory went to American teenager Justin Dowell, whose wonderful first run saw him prevail with a gargantuan 92.20 score.
Second place went to Costa Rica’s Kenneth Tencio Esquivel while Brandon Loupos of Australia rounded off the podium.
That also brought the curtain down on the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships for the Great Britain Cycling Team, with plenty of encouraging performances to suggest the BMX Freestyle Park future is bright.
