Penelope qualified for the world championships after placing first at the Australian National championships in Nov 2022. She trained and/or raced up to 6 times a week leading up to the world championships this year which included sprint training, strength training, track training and racing. The world championships is a UCI (Union cyclist international) event where the best of the best come together from over 120 different countries around the world to compete including Olympic level BMX riders. This year it was held in Glasgow, Scotland. Penelope raced in the 9Girls class along with 60 other riders, all top riders of their country. Penelope placed first in all three of her qualifying races, she was very strong out of the gate and was well in the lead by the time she crossed the finish line. 

Following the qualifiers Penelope raced in the quarter and the semifinals where she needed to place top four in each race in order to progress to the finals. Although the competition was fierce, she managed to place first in each race going into the final with the highest ranked points in her grade for the event. She didn't get such a good start in her semi-final and was sitting in 5th position by the first turn, her amazing talent and strength saw her overtake all 4 riders in-front of her before crossing the finish line to secure first place, an extremely challenging feat in BMX!

Penelope was in gate one for her final, the gate of choice for most BMXers, many of the girls in the final had not ridden against each-other all day and Penelope was up against last year's World 1, World 2, World 4 and world 7 so it was likely to be a tough run! Unfortunately, Penelope was slow out of the gate and when she hit the first triple (bumps) she wasn't able to jump like the other girls which slowed her down. By the time all the riders had reached the first turn Penelope was right behind them but was unable to pass them until it was clear.. she turned onto the second turn overtaking one rider and managed to overtake another 2 on the second straight. With the crowd screaming and cheering her on (none of which she said she could hear) she dug deep and began chasing down the lead rider who was from Japan, by the last straight she was less than a second behind the leader but ran out of track to overtake, Penelope is now the 2nd fastest BMX rider in under 9 girls in the world! 

When asked how she felt Penelope said "I'm so proud of how I rode all day, especially for my first world championships. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't manage to catch Chiza (the Japanese rider) on the line because I knew that I could win but I'm still really proud of 2nd".

Penelope is looking forward to getting back into training and preparing for the National Championships in November where she hopes to hold onto her championship title. In the near future, Penelope hopes to attend another world championships, and to place first, especially if it's in 2026 in Brisbane! 

Lars rode well but was very sick with the flu, he was happy to just being able to get on the track but was knocked out after his 3 qualifiers.