A BMX rider has had her first taste of world championship competition.
Sahbina Ashman qualified for a place on Team GB in the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, held in Glasgow in August, after competing successfully in all of the qualification rounds of the National championships and winning a trophy at the British championships at the end of last year’s BMX season.
Sahbina, who is 14 and about to start Year 10 at Downend School, took up the sport in 2018.
In 2021 she won the South West BMX Regionals, and was the girls’ champion in her category for that year.
Soon afterwards she was signed up by Rusty Nut Racing along with her younger brother Gilmour Green, who is ten.
To prepare for the World Championships Regionals she has been racing some of the best 14-year- boys in the South of England.
Mum Chui Green said Sahbina, who lives in Emersons Green, missed out on reaching the quarter finals in her age group, where the best 32 riders would contest a place in the semi-finals, by just one place, and ended the championships 37th overall.
Chui said: “She was very unlucky.
“However she took away a lot from the experience, racing with the world’s best on a big stage, with an audience of thousands watching from the stands.”
Sahbina is returning to domestic competition, aiming to better her eighth place finish at last year’s British Championships.
Chui added: “We are very proud of her, she achieved what she set out to do and 37th is a great result for her first world championships.”
Sahbina is planning to take a break from qualifying for next year’s world championships but is aiming to be back to compete in 2025, when they will be in Copenhagen.