Alise Post and Nic Long earned their way to their second Olympic Games with bronze medals Sunday evening at the 2016 UCI BMX World Championships in Medellin, Colombia.
Post finished the final in 42.861 seconds, 1.476 behind Colombia’s Mariana Pajon, the reigning Olympic champion who celebrated her fifth world title before her countrymen. Caroline Buchanan of Australia took the silver with a time of 42.312.
With the bronze, Post, 25, now owns three world championship medals, including silver from 2014 and bronze from 2010. She finished 12th at the London 2012 Olympic Games and has since become a force to be reckoned with on the world cup circuit, earned six medals from 2013-15. Post won four consecutive national championships from 2011-14 and has a gold medal from the 2014 North American Continental BMX Championships. A former competitive gymnast, in 2006 she was the first woman to win the “Rookie Pro of the Year” award presented by BMXer magazine.
In the men’s final, Long, 26, crossed the finish line in 38.380 seconds, 0.6 seconds ahead of France’s Jeremy Rencurel. Joris Daudet of France won the world title in 36.737, edging out Niek Kimmann of the Netherlands, who took silver in 36.785.
The bronze is Long’s best world championship result, having placed no higher than fifth in previous tries. The silver medalist at the Guadalajara 2011 Pan American Games and bronze medalist at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, he also has three world cup medals to his name. He finished 17th at his Olympic debut in London.
