-
Sarah Walker - Source: Photosport -
Related
Kiwi BMX rider Sarah Walker has had her chances of success at next month's world championships improved with news that world champion Shanaze Reade has withdrawn.
Walker, who won a bronze medal last year, will be among the favourites at the championships in Adelaide on July 23-26.
Those chances have significantly improved with Reade's withdrawal, prompted by the Great Britain athlete suffering a serious shoulder injury in training a fortnight ago.
The 20-year-old aggravated an old shoulder injury and will miss the chance to debut at the mountainbike World Cup Scotland this weekend along with the BMX world championships in Adelaide.
Reade's omission will now leave open an opportunity for Walker because 2008 world silver medallist and Olympic gold medallist, Anne-Caroline Chausson, of France, has retired.
Walker, who finished fourth at both the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the recent Supercross in Copenhagen, is expected to face major opposition from Frenchwoman Laetitia le Corguille and American Jill Kintner, the Beijing Olympic silver and bronze medallists respectively.
