BMX SX | Saya grabs fourth; Dean & Kai OK after crashing in USA World Cup

Photo - Craig Dutton

In her fourth UCI BMX SX World Cup final of 2019, Saya Sakakibara has finished fourth in the eighth World Cup round held in Rock Hill, USA.

"I had a good day today," Sakakibara said. "I went through all the motos in first and second and I had a really good lap in my semi-final. I even had the second fastest lap for the day.

"It's really exciting to come away with the fourth and there are a lot of positives to come away from this weekend. I'm really looking forward to training again and ready to do it all again in Argentina."

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Heyyy □ look at that. A crash free weekend, faced some of my personal mental fears and found myself in 2 finals at Rounds 7 + 8 @ucibmxsx World Cup! #yessss Day 1 - #5 Day 2 - one place better #4 So next time be ... #3? Haha kidding □We’ll see in 2 weeks in Argentina □□! As always thanks for the support! ❤️ 怪我もなく、大会が終わった！ 2日とも決勝に進出し、1日目は５位で、2日目は一歩上がって４位でフィニッシュすることが出来た！嬉しい！次は３位かな？？？なんちゃって。 次はアルゼンチン！これからも頑張ろう！いつも応援ありがとうございます。 #worldcup #bmx #racing #shaka

A post shared by Saya Sakakibara (@sayasakakibara) on Sep 17, 2019 at 2:03am PDT

Two crashes ended Kai Sakakibara's runs in the 1/8 finals in both rounds, while Anthony Dean suffered a dramatic crash in round seven and was forced out of round eight. 

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Not photoshopped ??‍♂️??? Still can’t believe I walked away from this without any major injuries! Thank you to everyone for the messages in my last post, if you haven’t seen it go watch ?????? #BMX #SoreAnkles ? by @navadanet

A post shared by Anthony Dean (@anthonydean44) on Sep 16, 2019 at 12:07pm PDT

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I don’t know what to say about this weekend. A collision & crash ended both of my days in the 1/8 Final. Honestly I’m pretty gutted as I came into the event in great form, but that’s racing sometimes. Luckily the body is okay. I have to say a big congrats to @izaackennedy on a stellar performance on Friday and taking one for Team Aus this weekend. I’ll be ready to go again in Argentina for the next World Cup. ワールドカップ第7、8戦は2日とも1/8決勝でライダーと接触し、転倒してしまいました。今年最悪の結果となってしまい、正直ショックです。こういう事もあるんだな。あまり自分を責めすぎず、いい感じに仕上がっていた調子を次に繋げることが課題です。引き続き応援よろしくお願いします！#sakakibarabmx

A post shared by Kai Sakakibara 榊原魁 (@sakakibarakai) on Sep 16, 2019 at 5:52am PDT

UCI Rankings after Rd8:

Men

• Kai Sakakibara: 13th 380 points
• Anthony Dean: 23rd 245 points

Women

• Saya Sakakibara: 8th 515 points