Capital BMX Worlds 2026 Round-Up
August 9, 2026
Six Capital riders qualified for the 2026 UCI BMX Racing World Championships in Brisbane: Aella Robinson in 8 Girls, Kiera Ocoboc (now riding out of Castle Hill in Sydney) in 10 Girls, Otis Ropiha and Spencer Robinson in 11 Boys, Jack Kelly in 13 Boys, and Jamie Harkness in 17-24 Cruiser Male. Here’s how their week unfolded.
Getting there
Families started arriving in Brisbane from 10 July, building in a few days of holiday and preparation before racing began — including trips to Dreamworld and Pizzey Park on the Gold Coast and the pilgrimage to LUX BMX for last-minute spare parts. BMX NZ had booked out the Ipswich track on 15 and 17 July for NZ-only practice, giving the team a chance to get race-ready together before the main event.
A different kind of weekend
This year’s schedule was a change from the usual format: the Championship (Elite) classes raced on Saturday and Sunday, ahead of the age-group Challenge classes rather than aftewards. A group from the Wellington region was there to watch Saturday’s qualifying, with moto placings and the last-chance qualifier (LCQ) deciding who progressed through to eighth and quarter finals.
Overnight the wind picked up, and Sunday’s racing was delayed again and again before being cancelled altogether. It meant missing out on some of the battles everyone had been looking forward to, and in a controversial call, the rainbow jerseys were awarded on Saturday’s fastest lap times instead.
Learning the track
Monday and Tuesday were official practice days for the age-group riders. The process itself was an event: riders were dropped at the rider entrance to get wristbands and bike barcodes scanned and transponders registered, then through to the central velodrome area where the international teams had their pits.
With more than 2,600 riders from over 40 countries on site, practice was split into six 80-minute sessions grouped by country. New Zealand shared its slot with Japan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Thailand and several others. Most riders got just four laps to learn one of the most technical tracks on the calendar — two rolling in, and two with a gate.
Race week
Racing was split across four days by age group, with the full action available to watch on YouTube.
Wednesday — Cruisers. Jamie lined up in 17-24 Male Cruiser against 77 other riders, on a track still drying out after heavy downpours during practice. In his first moto from lane 1, he was pushed onto the pro straight at the first jump and dropped to the back of the field before fighting his way up to 6th on the third straight and a crash ahead of him promoted him to 5th.
Moto 2 was a better start from lane 4, holding 6th through straights two and three, with another crash ahead of him again handing him 5th. Moto 3 brought a decent gate, but stuck out in lane 8 he couldn’t move across the pack — by his own reckoning it was his best ride of the day, but he crossed the line in 8th. With the top 40 going through to eighth finals, Jamie finished the Championships ranked World #60.
Thursday — 8 and 10 Girls. Aella had found the technical track and its deep rollers tough in practice, including a big crash on the first jump, but turned it around on race day. Moto 1 saw a strong gate put her in 2nd until halfway down the third straight, when an Australian rider pumped past — a mistake from the Aussie in the third corner let Aella pull clear again for a comfortable 2nd. Moto 2 followed a similar pattern: 3rd from the start until another Kiwi (also a Robinson) got past halfway down straight three, leaving her in 4th. In moto 3 she rode a strong defensive line to hold 3rd into the last straight but was pipped at the line for 4th. A second and two fourths were enough to qualify for the quarterfinals with 6th lane choice. She had another strong gate there — 4th into the last jump on the first straight — but the other riders pumped hard and moved across, leaving Aella 7th by straight two and finishing 8th in the final, for a World #30 ranking.
Kiera’s first moto was dominated by the USA’s World #2, followed by three Australians, with Kiera coming home 5th. In moto 2 she was 5th after the first corner but pumped smoothly past the French rider into 4th at corner two, then took a great inside line into the last corner to run stride for stride with the other Kiwi in the race down the final straight to grab 3rd. Moto 3 saw World #3 from Canada pipping a Colombian rider on the line, with Kiera a comfortable 3rd behind them — enough for an event ranking of 24th after motos and a place in the quarterfinals. There, World #1 dominated the field; Kiera rode well but finished 7th, for a World #25 ranking.
Friday — 11-15 Boys. Otis and Spencer raced 11 Boys, the biggest class of the day with 95 riders across 16 heats in three motos before the eighth finals. Jack should have been racing 13 Boys, but a pump track injury the Saturday before meant he never made it onto the track — though he still got into the pits to support his mates and swap a jersey.
Otis and Spencer drew similar lanes across their motos — inside for moto 1, out to lane 8 by moto 3. Both were competitive down the hill but found themselves chasing after being outgunned in the drag race down the first straight. Otis finished 5th, 6th, 5th for a World #83 ranking; Spencer finished 5th, 5th, 4th for World #72.
Beyond the results
Results aside, one of the highlights of the week was getting to meet some of the stars and watching our riders swap jerseys with riders from other countries — a reminder of what these events are really about.
Congratulations to Aella, Kiera, Spencer, Otis, Jack and Jamie on representing Capital BMX on the world stage, and thank you to the families who made the trip to Brisbane to support them.