Carly has her sights on World Championships
Carly Hayes is all set for the World Championships in Copenhagen

Carly has her sights on World Championships

Carly Hayes is a 16 year old BMX rider from Tallaght who recently was a recipient of the talent bursary fund from Active South Dublin in partnership with South Dublin County Council.

The total fund was €65,000 spread across various athletes.

Carly is the Irish 2025 champion, British 2024 champion and took a bronze medal in Rome at the 2024 European Championships.

She currently has her sights set on the World Championships being held this weekend in Copenhagen.

Hayes’ father Stephen Doyle is a key member of her team and is part of the BMX Ireland commission for 2025.

Doyle spoke on the importance of receiving the fund and the impact it will have on Carly’s training.

“It’s hugely important for her. We have a couple of clubs in the area that Carly would train on a lot, Lucan and Ratoath.

‘But they don’t have the facilities that Carly would need to excel in the junior women category.

‘She’ll start racing off an eight metre starthill come 2026 and having that funding now just allows her to get more training in 2026 and 2027 and more access.

‘An eight metre start hill, bigger tracks, bigger competitions and be on par with her competition going into bigger events.”.

Despite all of her previous accomplishments, Carly has had her focus totally on the World Championships this year.

“She’s massively been preparing for this. Gym, bike work. This is her goal this year.

‘She took a step back from European Championships which were held last weekend because she wanted to concentrate on the worlds.

‘They were a little too close for our liking. She’s proved herself on the European stage. She’s been in a lot of European cup races and getting good results but the world’s is where she wants to test herself.”

The sport of BMX consists of a course typically ranging around 400-450 metres with one lap and eight riders taking part.

You need to stay in the top four to qualify throughout the day.

Each rider gets three qualifying races and then they are eliminated to the top 32, you must stay in the top 4 of each race you’re in to reach the final race of the day with the top overall 8 riders in the competition.

Carly got into BMX over 10 years ago where she and her father used to go down to a small indoor track in Ballyfermot for something to do.

“We brought her to the UK in 2015 just for a bit of fun. We heard there was racing there and we went for a race and she won.

‘We said we’d do the whole season and she became British champion in the U6s in 2015.”

“I would love to see Ireland have someone in the elites one day, we never had that. There’s another guy called Reuben Byrne who has a lot of potential and the two of them are kind of making noise now.

“They are starting to draw attention to themselves and I’m seeing younger kids even looking up to the likes of Carly and Reuben coming to the track.

‘It’s nice to see. If we had two riders or Carly pushed into junior class next year and then  under 23s and then elites I think it would attract more riders to the sport.

‘A lot of young girls would look up to her and it would open the door.”