Palmerston North teenager Jonty Williamson produced a stunning finish to claim his first junior men’s UCI world cup win in the opening round of the series in South Korea at the weekend.
Williamson, 17, claimed downhill victory over fellow New Zealand rider Malik Boatwright (Queenstown) by 0.2sec.
It looked like a Kiwi sweep of the podium when Taranaki’s Camden Rutherfurd edged his way to third, only to be pushed back to fourth by Frenchman Sacha Brizin.
Williamson was thrilled to reach the top step of the podium, especially in the first round of the 2026 season, after earning three podiums last year.
"I got quite close last year with a fourth, third and second, so it means a lot," he said.
"I have wanted to win a world cup since I was a kid."
Boatright had earlier set the fastest time of 2min 50.863sec as the higher seeds fell by the wayside. Williamson was over 1sec back through the third of four time splits, but scorched down the final section to edge Boatright by a tiny margin.
"I just went out there and did the same as always. I managed to pull a lot of time back in the bottom split so obviously I did something pretty good there," Williamson said.
"I can’t say I had much of a plan going down that last section. I was struggling with the middle and upper sections all weekend so the bottom was my strong suit and I rode that quite well."
Rutherfurd put himself up to third in an excellent performance but the Kiwi was edged out by Brizin for third by 0.5sec.
There were strong performances for other New Zealanders in the first downhill world cup held at Mona YongPyong, which was a venue for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Double junior world championship medallist Sacha Earnest, ranked eighth in the world, had a strong start to finish sixth in the elite women.
She qualified strongly along with compatriot Jenna Hastings (Rotorua) and took the early lead with a fast run on the bottom half of the course in 3min 17.409sec.
Four-time world champion Valentia Holl (Austria) claimed the win from Italy’s Gloria Scarsi and French great Myriam Nicole.
Top seed Asa Vermette (USA) claimed the men’s final from the French pairing of Loic Bruni and Amaury Pierron.
Hawke’s Bay teenager Tyler Waite, who bagged seven podiums in the junior ranks last year, qualified in his elite debut, finishing 24th in the final.
Earlier, Queenstown rider Indy Deavoll and Wellington’s Kiera Vlaar finished seventh and eighth respectively in the final of the junior women. — Allied Media
