O’Keeffe eleventh in World Supercross ranking

BMX racers made their way to the Netherlands for the third round of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup at Papendal, in the city of Arnhem, the Netherlands at the weekend.

South African Elite BMX racer Teagan O’Keeffe recovered well from a heavy crash during practice on Friday to narrowly miss out on competing in the main heat during the third round of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup, held at Papendal in the city of Arnhem, the Netherlands at the weekend. Photo Credit: Jerry Landrum/BMXmania.com

Elite women representative Teagan O’Keeffe had a horrific accident during her practice session on Friday, where she misjudged her launch off one of the jumps and crashed into the slope of the next jump. Twenty-year-old O’Keeffe, who hails from Kloof in KwaZulu-Natal, was concussed, yet the determined young star was deemed fit to race on Saturday, where she qualified twelfth in the time trial.

O’Keeffe’s qualification saw her make it to the TT superfinals; only the top 16 riders go through. She then proceeded to qualify through the motos, finishing 4^th, 3^rd and 5^th and therefore transferred to the semi final.

Teagan narrowly missed making it through to the main, finishing in 5th place in the semi (top 4 go through). Her results from the first three Supercross World Cup events this season have paced her 11^th in the UCI BMX Supercross rankings for 2013.

It wasn’t a good race for two-time Olympian Sifiso Nhlapo, who confessed to making bad line choices during his heats. Skizo (as he is known to his fans) finished 59^th in the time trial (top 64 men proceed to the next round), but finished 4^th, 8^th and 6^th in the motos and failed to go through to the next round.

The twenty-six-year-old from Alberton, who lives and races in the USA during the racing season, is now ranked 26^th in the 2013 Men Elite Supercross ranking.

Colombian Mariana Pajon won the Elite women’s event, while local Dutch rider Jelle van Gorkom claimed the Elite men’s title.

The next event for our BMX stars is the UCI BMX World Championships, which take place in Auckland New Zealand from 24-28 July 2013.