Josh joins elite ranks

By Kath Gannaway
BADGER Creek BMX champion Josh Callan will ride at ‘elite’ level when he competes in the UCI BMX World Championships in South Africa in July.
The 19-year-old former Steiner School student who started competing 12 years ago and first made an Australian representative team at just 11, is one of six riders chosen for the top level Elite Men’s team.
Callan has already notched up an impressive raft of career highlights including winning back-to-back World Championships in 2002 and 2003. He came third and achieved a personal best in the ABA Nationals in 2007 and rated 5th as part of the Junior Elite team competing in the BMX World Championships in 2008.
He has represented Australia at six World Championships between 2003 and 2008 travelling to countries including China, Canada and Brazil and was captain of the Australian Mighty 11s Tour of New Zealand in 2002.
Not surprisingly his inclusion in the Elite Men’s is a giant jump towards achieving two current ambitions.
“This is the biggest race of the year and I’ve been focused the whole year on getting to this point,” he said. His aim in South Africa will be to leave with another world title to his name.
“It’s also a definite step towards the Olympics,” Callan said.
“The Olympics is coming up pretty quickly now so this will give me the confidence to make use of the best opportunity to qualify for the Olympics,” he said.
Callan left Australia on Tuesday for America where he will take part in a series of races in the lead up to the World Championships.
The championships will be held at Pietermaritzburg from 20 July to 1 August.
Callan and his sister Ziggy, also a competition BMX rider, were ground-level consultants for the Healesville BMX track.