BMX track a soaring success

The spectacular venue for one of this summer’s Pan Am Games most highly anticipated competitions, Centennial Park Pan Am BMX Centre, has finally been revealed.

After the ribbon-cutting, Tory Nyhaug and Amelia Walsh, athletes from the Canadian national BMX team who will compete next month at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games, gave a demonstration on the new track which will remain as a Games legacy facility.

The 3.2 hectare park, jointly funded by the federal government and City of Toronto, is the province’s first-ever BMX supercross track. The park’s eight-metre start ramp will launch riders onto the closed-loop-design track filled with challenging jumps, tight bends, berms and obstacles that will test the 22 male and 15 female riders competing in this summer’s cycling-BMX competition.

Due to high demand, there are currently no tickets available for this rough-and-tumble fan favourite. Some of the biggest names in the sport are expected to make their way to Toronto to compete this July, including Colombia’s Mariana Pajón, Olympic gold medallist in London in 2012 and the United States’ Connor Fields, Pan Am gold medallist in Guadalajara in 2011.

Canada’s Nyhaug, who finished second at the 2014 UCI BMX World Championships last July, is expected to be a top medal contender.