Lenzerheide, Switzerland- The final day of the 2018 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, concluded with Anna Newkirk (Riehen, Switzerland; Team Project) taking silver in the Junior Downhill competition.
The 17-year-old American who resides in Switzerland with her family completed the challenging 2.5km track in a time of 3:50.607, six seconds ahead of bronze medalist Mille Johnset of Norway.
“I had so many friends and family here watching so it meant a lot to me that they were here,” said Newkirk of the day, “I made a few mistakes in a few sections but all in all it was good, I made it down without any crashes or really big mistakes so I’m really happy.”
Earlier in the season, Newkirk took Bronze at the UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup in Fort William, UK and Silver at the World Cups in Vallnord, Andorra and Val Di Sole, Italy.
“Anna has been consistently on the podium in the World Cups this year so we were hopeful she could get the job done once again here in Lenzerheide and she delivered,” said Marc Gullickson, Director of Mountain Bike at USA Cycling.
Team USA had four other top ten performances today with Samantha Soriano (Littleton, Colo.; COMMENCAL Junior Cartel) and Kaytlin Melvin (Sammamish, WA; Sweetlines Racing) placing seventh and ninth respectively in the Junior Women’s category and Aaron Gwin (Murrieta, Calif.; The YT Mob) and Luca Shaw (Hendersonville, N.C.; Santa Cruz Bicycles) placing fifth and seventh respectively in the Elite Men’s Category.
Earlier in the week, Christopher Blevins took silver in the Men’s U23 Cross-Country race while Kate Courtney won gold in the Women’s Elite race. In the end, Team USA took home three medals and had several top-20 performances throughout the four day competition.
“It’s been great to see our athletes show up on the world stage in such a big way, especially with such a young pool of talent. They are not only winning medals, but also earning valuable Olympic points giving this next generation of American mountain bikers the chance to be serious podium contenders in Tokyo as well as at future World Championships,” said Scott Schnitzspahn, Vice President of Elite Athletics for USA Cycling.
For more about the 2018 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, please visit the event website at https://lenzerheide2018.ch.
