June 11, 2018 (Baku, Azerbaijan) – Avriana Hebert was Canada’s top performer at the UCI BMX World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan in the Junior women’s competition, finishing eighth overall after crashing while in the lead of the medal race. In the amateur Challenge competition, Canadian rider Cole Zufelt finished third in the Boys Cruiser 15-16 category.
Hebert, from Edmonton, Alberta, missed the two months of competition leading up to the world championships, but battled back to make it to the Final. After the first turn she moved into first place, but was then taken down in a crash on the last turn.
“I’m super happy to make it into the Final at World Champs,” said Hebert, “and a big thanks to my medical team for getting me here.”
In other competition, Daina Tuchscherer (Calgary, AB) made it through the qualifying motos for Elite women, but was knocked out in the quarter-finals. In the Elite men, Tory Nyhaug (Coquitlam, BC) and James Palmer (North Vancouver, BC) were knocked out in the eighth-finals.
“We had a solid group of athletes here,” said Adam Muys, BMX National Coach. “We had some really strong races, but also some crashes that kept a few of our top riders out of the Finals. I’m extremely happy with Avriana’s performance; coming back from injury earlier in the year and leading the Junior women’s Final coming into the last corner. She is going to be really good in the future.”