It was a case of call back the past when Latvian Maris Strombergs and Briton Shanaze Reade reclaimed the UCI BMX World Championship men’s and women’s titles respectively in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday – but the real hero for the partisan South African crowd was men’s runner up Sifiso Nhlapo. For the local crowd the men’s final result was a bitter sweet conclusion to the day’s racing as they celebrated Nhlapo’s silver medal with the thought about how close he came to pulling off the biggest upset of the year on the world BMX circuit.
For Nhlapo it was simply another step on his tough journey to glory. After finishing third in the 2008 World Championships, Skizo as he is known was forced to watch the 2009 World Champs after he broke his neck in a horrific training crash. So to end second is a step forward and victory in 2011 would simply be the continuation of a progression  … Details