At the fourth Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup for downhill mountain biking of the 2022 season, two B.C. teens stood atop the podium with shining gold medals hanging around their necks.
Gracey Hemstreet of the Sunshine Coast and Squamish’s Jackson Goldstone had both earned yet another gold medal in the junior divisions, this time in Switzerland.
The Sunshine Coast teen secured the win on the third and fourth split of the junior women's race, making fractions of seconds count toward her charge on the podium. She ended the race with the winning time of three minutes and 28 seconds (3:28.111, to be exact). Great Britain’s Phoebe Gale, who has been stiff competition for Hemstreet as they rotate standings on the podium and during the race splits in Switzerland, finished in second place with a time of 3:29.959, although she had the lead time in the first and second splits with only 0.281 of a second ahead of Hemstreet in split two. Jenna Hastings of Australia took bronze with a time of 3:33.793.
Lenzerheide, Switzerland, hosts a 2.2 kilometre downhill track with a vertical drop of 413 metres and featured a few new sections for riders this year.
Hemstreet’s showings at this year’s UCI World Cup series has already made history. Now she’s racking up the medals. Hemstreet became the first Canadian junior female to win a World Cup in downhill mountain biking, during the first cup of the season in Lourdes, France, and she’s added two more golds to her collection since: one from Fort William, Scotland, and her third from her latest race. The only World Cup she hasn’t won so far this year, in Austria, still saw her on the podium. Overall, she holds 225 points. Behind her, with 210 points, is Gale.
Also in the lead in his division is Jackson Goldstone of Squamish. Ahead of Lenzerheide, Redbull reported Goldstone’s overall standing at 220 points, 10 ahead of the next closest competitor in his division. Last year, Goldstone took home the junior world title.
In Switzerland, Goldstone took the win by 1.513 seconds with a total time of 2:50.072. Lachlan Stevens-McNab (Australia) finished second, with Jordan Williams (Great Britain) in third.
So far this year, Goldstone has earned two silvers and two gold medals at World Cup races.
The next World Cup will be held in Vallnord, Andorra on July 15 to 17.
