Logan Martin has cast aside the disappointment of his Olympic title defence to finish 2024 in spectacular fashion, winning an unprecedented third BMX freestyle park world title. The 31-year-old Australian overcame a stacked field to triumph at the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on Saturday. His victory added to his world titles in 2017 and 2021.
No other rider has more than a single men's world title to their name. The final field included the last two world champions, Rim Nakamura (Japan) and Keiran Reilly (Great Britain), and this year's Olympic gold medallist Jose Torres Gil (Argentina), ensuring riders would need to be all-in to reach the podium. But 2021 Olympic gold medallist Martin pulled off some of the tricks he'd prepared for the Paris Games, where he finished ninth, as he produced two blistering runs for scores of 91.
10 then 94.30. Martin then had to sit back and watch the Heat 2 riders take two attempts to top his score, and Nakamura threw an early scare with a 90.
48 on his first run, as did Torres Gil with a score of 91.60 on his opening ride. However, Martin's score clearly added to pressure for his challengers as one by one they either made a technical mistake or fell pushing for bigger tricks.
Torres Gil and Justin Dowell (USA) took the silver and bronze medals with 91.60 and 90.74 respectively.
"I'm absolutely stoked," Martin said."I really wanted to pull my first run. I landed that run and then it was all or nothing.
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