Carly bikes to 13th in the world in BMX

The BMX world championships took place in Copenhagen over the last week or so with Tallaght’s own Carly Hayes representing Ireland in the Girls 16 category.

Carly would go on to achieve a semi-final finishing position at the tournament, finishing 13th overall in the world and narrowly missing out on a place in the final eight.

The tournament consisted of riders taking part in races, with the fastest of each race progressing on to the next round and getting further into the competition.

Carly started off her campaign excellently winning the first race before finishing third in the next two.

This qualified her for the one-eighth final of the tournament which is when the competition really started getting tough.

Carly would manage a fourth place finish in this race which would progress her onto the quarter-final where again she would manage a fourth place finish bringing her into the penultimate race of the day.

Unfortunately this was to be the limit this time for Carly.

After a bad start she found herself towards the back of the pack and was unable to reach the fourth place position that would have qualified her for the overall final, instead coming in seventh.

Her father and key member of the team, Stephen Doyle, spoke about the achievement and the reaction to the tournament performance from Carly and her team.

“We had a great time here in Copenhagen. Carly raced superb. She really liked the track here and her two practice sessions went very well, setting good track times.

‘The talent in the tournament was so high at this stage and to see Carly get to the semi-finals was brilliant.

‘Carly’s goal before leaving for Copenhagen was getting to the semi-final. A final would have been the icing on the cake along with finishing in the top 8 in the world.

‘Ranking in at 13th overall wasn’t a bad day’s work for Carly out of 69 of the best riders from around the World.”

For any fans wondering Carly’s next excursion on the track will be on August 24 when she takes part in the British Championships being held in Cyclopark in Kent.