Good to see this bloke has his prioritys right.

Well it’s done & dusted, mixed results for the aussies in the morning with Ben & Joel crashing out, James Maltman was an awesome 5th on a busted up ankle & Mitch Delfs was an awesome 7th highest place west aussie & ben was 9th even with his big digger. It pains me to think where the boys could have come, but me know they are true champions on & off the bike and mark my words, their day WILL come!

Joel was in alot of pain after his run but came good after 2 or 20 beers later at the party! Funny story, some of the kiwi team found Joel on a park bench after the party & carried him back to the hotel. I woke Ben & Joel up this morning both with very second hand heads, Joel’s still in bed frequantly re-visting what he drank last night if u get my drift I sooooo could have videod him but I refrained casue he’d prolly kick my arse if we had to duke it out over the tape!

The boys are in a better mood today which is great. All is good. We are going to hit up some of the local tracks in the next day or two which I’m looking forward to gettin some good footage on these awesome tracks.

Sambo schooled the field, the margin was big on this track and he was def the best by far, there was lines where 95% of the field would take, then Rennie, Minnar, Peat & Kovarik would take the sick line and then Sambo would go where no man feared, truly awesome to watch riders of the above mentioned caliber shaking thier heads at Sam’s lines. In one steeeeep section with drops, & I mean steeeeeeeep (has to been seen to believed) most riders were going high or around, a few rolled straight & Sambo just gapped it. Kovarik & Minnar tried to gap it in practice but niether pulled it off and didnt do it in their runs.

In the press conference sambo didnt say much & looked like he just rolled down for a win at a local track in WA. One journo said “Sam u just won mate smile!” Sambo got a bit of a smile going but gee the way he rides & speaks is world’s apart. He kept it all very under wraps like a true champion.

Sam said he took it pretty easy in qualifying as qualifying 1st at last years worlds put too much pressure on him and when the last rider leaves the gate they usually hear all the riders times before them which doesnt help (something rennies also commenated about & said he wished he hadn’t heard).

Sam siad he basically just focused on what was coming up & had a flawless run. Watching on the big screen down the bottom this was plain to see, everyone made atleast one tiny mistake here or there, a foot down here, check up after running a tad wide etc not Sambo, he really did pin it and his run was like he said, flawless.

Kovarik lead for ages and actually had the 2nd fast top section split overall till sam went .550 under then smoked the bottom of the course to make up several seconds. Minnar, Peat & Rennie were all about 2-4 seconds behind Sam on the split and when rennie went thro 3 seconds down I knew Sambo had it in the bag.

What a day, at the podium the aussies drowned out the announcer and the piss weak cries from a few other countries. It was sick, aussie aussie auisse oi oi oi. Graves had a mega phone and the national anthem went nuts. Sambo stood with one clenched fist in the air while the crowd went nuts like I’ve never seen before. I was so proud to be an aussie but most of all a WEST AUSSIE!

Thanks for the updates Ira Iam sure iam speaking for all the West Aussies.

1st Sam Hill 3.11.03

2nd Greg Minnaar 3.15.25

3rd Nathan Rennie 3.17.16

Will post more later but in a epic final Perth boy Sambo schooled the field!

The Aussies went mental at the podium ceromony!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sabrina won the womens so thats two aussies!!!!!!!

So stoked after this mornings results.

Will post later after the press conference

1st Sabrinna Jonnier 3.50.32 

2nd Tracey Mosely 3.53.83

3rd Racheal Atherton 3.57.80 

Junior Men
1. COLE Cameron (NZL) 3:28.29
2. BLENKINSOP Samuel (NZL) 3:29.45 +1.16
3. BADOUARD Antoine (FRA) 3:29.84 +1.55
4. JONES Ralph (GBR) 3:30.14 +1.85
5. MALTMAN James (AUS) 3:36.12 +7.83
7. DELFS Mitchell AUS 3:37.26 +8.97
9. BEL Ben AUS 3:39.93 + 11.64
11. SWANN Alex AUS 3:40.17 + 11.88
26. BRODIE James AUS 3:50.92 + 22.63
27. BAIN Joel AUS 3:51.51 + 23.22
32. GOWEN Luke AUS 3:55.23 + 26.94

Junior Women
1. HANNAH Tracey (AUS) 4:07.07
2. PUGIN Floriane (FRA) 4:11.74 +4.67
3. GATTO Micayla (CAN) 4:40.91 + 33.84

The junior finals have just been completed & the elite men & women are about to start. I wish I had good news but unfortunatley it wasn’t our day, two kiwis took out 1st & 2nd. Ben & Joel both crashed hard & I must say I feel pretty upset for them, Joel clipped a pedal coming into a big gap jump where u have to clear a root, he hit the root & his balls slammed the stem, over the bars & landed on his head. He is DEVESTATED & in quite a bit of pain, it’s fair to say it was tears all round, even I had a bit of a sooky sooky la la……. It’s hard to watch such awesome youngs kids have their guts ripped out.

Ben didn’t go much better & when I saw him rolling into the finish line I knew something was up. He crashed on a big step down, I’m pretty sure I saw 7th on the board when he came thro. He said he knew he was done for when he went over, needles to say he was also inconsolable but it was good to see the senior aussies like Amiel & Rando speaking to the boys straight after the runs. The team is pretty tight. I havent really spoken to them properly, just a quick question or two then I left them alone……..

Mitch had an okay run with a few small mistakes & James Maltman said he was happy with his run, not sure exactly where they ended up as results aren’t up yet.

The good news is Tracy Hannah won the junior womens by 4 seconds & was totally spent at the line. 1 gold for the aussies anyway…….

Elite men are about to start so I’m off……….