It was an epic evening of 4x racing here at the Canberra World Champs 2009, with the Australian crowd’s enthusiasm richly rewarded with two Aussie winners – Caroline Buchanan and Jared Graves. The women’s final came down to Caroline, Jill Kintner, Melissa Buhl and Anita Molcik. Caroline and Jill battled the whole way down the track but the local rider managed to keep the lead.

The pivotal moment of the night's racing was in the semi-finals, when world number one Anneke Beerten hit a flag and was relegated to the semis.

Anneke Beerten hitting the gate, World Champs 2009.
Photo: Jo Goudie

A teary but ecstatic Caroline told the press conference: “Even in the gate I knew it was my race, I wanted to win, and I knew I had it, I was crying from the bear traps down. It’s so emotional for me to win in my home town, everyone I know is here. It’s an awesome feeling.”

4x Press Conference, World Champs 2009.
Photo: Rita Langley

4x is never without crashes and upsets, and tonight was no exception. The UCI’s decision to penalize Anneke Beerten for clipping the gate on the second corner was the most pivotal. No-one (including Anneke herself) seemed to have realised she hit it and everyone was surprised to not see her in the final following a UCI decision that went unannounced at the event. However, you can see from the photo above that she ran her back wheel over the cloth part of the gate. So There were a couple of other upsets in the racing, including fourth fastest seed Romana Labounkova crashing in the 1/4 finals and not going through. World number 2 Fionn Griffiths was also eliminated early when she came up against Jill Kinter and Melissa Buhl in the first round.

We have a whole lot of video and interviews to go up, as well as more photos, so stay tuned while we get it all sorted… From this evening, the Martha Hucker World Champs media crew now has a photographer, Jo Goudie, who will be snapping away at the weekend’s racing capturing stuff Rita can’t, and doing a better job of photos. Rad!

Full results:

Final
1. Caroline Buchanan (AUS)
2. Jill Kintner (USA)
3. Melissa Buhl (USA)
4. Anita Molcik (AUT)

Small Final
1. Anneke Beerten (NED)
2. Mio Suemasa (JAP)
3. Sarsah Huntington (AUS)
4. Julia Boer (HUN)

Semi 1
1. Jill Kintner (USA)
2. Anita Molcik (AUT)
3. Mio Suemasa (JAP)
4. Julia Boer (HUN)

Semi 2
1. Caroline Buchanan (AUS)
2. Melissa Buhl (USA)
3. Sarsha Huntington (AUS)
4. Anneke Beerten (NED)…. (she actually finished first, but results read fourth due to the UCI ruling)

Heat 1
1. Jill Kntner (USA)
2. Mio suemasa (JAP)
3. Diana Margraff (ECU)

Heat 2
1. Anita Molcik (AUT)
2. Julia Boer (HUN)
3. Romana Labounkova

Heat 3
1. Caroline Buchanan (AUS)
2. Sarsha Huntington (AUS)
3. Jo Petterson (RSA)

Heat 4
1. Anneke Beerten (NED)
2. Melissa Buhl (USA)
3. Fionn Griffiths (GBR)

Older: Jill Kintner fastest qualifier at Canberra World Champs

Fresher: World DH Champs 2009… the anticipation is building

Published on 04/09/2009 by Martha Hucker.