Logan Martin has cast aside the disappointment of his Olympic title defence to finish 2024 in spectacular fashion, winning an unprecedented third BMX freestyle park world title.
The 31-year-old Australian overcame a stacked field to triumph at the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on Saturday.
His victory added to his world titles in 2017 and 2021. No other rider has more than a single men's world title to their name.
The final field included the last two world champions, Rim Nakamura (Japan) and Keiran Reilly (Great Britain), and this year's Olympic gold medallist Jose Torres Gil (Argentina), ensuring riders would need to be all-in to reach the podium.
But 2021 Olympic gold medallist Martin pulled off some of the tricks he'd prepared for the Paris Games, where he finished ninth, as he produced two blistering runs for scores of 91.10 then 94.30.
Martin then had to sit back and watch the Heat 2 riders take two attempts to top his score, and Nakamura threw an early scare with a 90.48 on his first run, as did Torres Gil with a score of 91.60 on his opening ride.
However, Martin’s score clearly added to pressure for his challengers as one by one they either made a technical mistake or fell pushing for bigger tricks.
Torres Gil and Justin Dowell (USA) took the silver and bronze medals with 91.60 and 90.74 respectively.
“I’m absolutely stoked,” Martin said.
“I really wanted to pull my first run. I landed that run and then it was all or nothing.
"I had to go out there and send it. I was in the first group so there was a lot more guys to go after me, so I had to go out and really send it in my second run and that run really paid off and that’s the one that won.
"I’ve been doing those tricks in my second run every single day. I planned to do them at the Olympics earlier in the year and it didn’t pay off, but it paid off here and I really worked for these results.
“I do it for my kids, my beautiful little boy Noah and my little girl Luna, and my beautiful wife back home.
"My wife holds it down while I have to travel and compete, and it doesn’t happen without a team, and my team is back home and it’s really awesome to have their support.”
Earlier, Australia’s women were able to improve on their qualifying position in their final, with Natalya Diehm and Sarah Nicki finishing ninth and 10th respectively.
Hannah Roberts (USA) continued to break new ground in the sport, winning her sixth BMX freestyle world championship with a score of 95.70, ahead of Chinese pair Sibei Sun (94.06) and Xiaotong Fan (93.72).
