BMX star Quillan Isidore on a manic and muddy World Championships
Sunday 28 August 2016 08:05, UK
There's nothing worse than having your perfect breakfast lined up and being told you don't have time to finish it.
Missing out on a fry-up was bad enough for BMX star Quillan Isidore at the weekend but thanks to some shocking weather and getting smashed up in the Belgian mud, it proved to be a pretty dramatic World Championships.
The Sky Academy Scholar has had his fair share of wipe-outs in the last couple of months in his battle for Olympic qualification but nobody could have prepared him for this.
Great Britain's BMX team were in Heusden-Zolder in Belgium and Quillan was making his debut at senior level at a World Championships. Here's what happened in his own words.....
It's safe to say that these World Championships will go down as one of the most hectic and dramatic there has ever been!
Weather warnings making everyone panic with high winds, heavy showers and possible thunder storms made me feel like I was racing a regional back in England!
I set off to Zolder in Belgium with the rest of the team on Tuesday afternoon feeling very confident about racing as training leading into the competition went exactly to plan and I was injury free for once too!
We arrived at our B&B we had to ourselves and that made the trip more relaxing and enjoyable as we weren't clogged up in a hotel room all day.
On the Wednesday we did our recovery rides to keep our legs loose as usual and travelled down to the track to watch some racing and get a feel of the atmosphere.
I love the Worlds. Racing is always furious and fast and it's great how the whole country gets behind every single rider.
There were perfect weather conditions for racing that day and I couldn't wait to get on the bike and start the race.
Nevertheless, I was eager to get to the track to watch my little brother who was racing in the '15 boys' and he had qualified into the semi-finals. I was nervously watching in the stands with my mum and older brother and he got a great start and was third by a long way.
Going down the final straight metres away from the finishing line we were all celebrating as we know how hard he had worked to make the final at this World Championships. Sadly, we celebrated too early and he crashed on the last jump three metres before the finish line.
We were devastated. So was he! That threw my mood as I couldn't get over what just happened. But I had to park that to one side and focus on myself.
Practice was at 7pm on the Thursday, so there was a lot of waiting around. As I raced here earlier this year for the first two European rounds I was confident with covering the track off within a couple laps.
So I did and the day after too. It was now time for the time trial. This was only my third time trial on a world stage and I was quite nervous. I just wanted to get it done with. I wasn't focused too much on the TT as the racing is the important one.
However, I still gave it my all but I made a few mistakes and the second half of the track slowed me down by around a second where I qualified 56th out of around 90 riders.
I knew I could have been in the top 30 at least if I hadn't made those two mistakes.
During practice that day we were warned the weather the following day was going to be very bad so we just hoped for the best.
Race day! The day's original schedule quickly went up in flames. I sat down to eat breakfast at 10am as planned and just five minutes later having had three mouthfuls of my eggs I was told I needed to pack and leave immediately as racing was to start at 11.10 instead of 1.30!
Rushing to get all my things together and quickly setting up trackside the weather was getting worse by the second.
Fences were getting blown down and the rain pouring. Lining up for practice the officials then decided we had to get through the day as quick as possible as the weather was due to get worse.
With that in mind it was too dangerous to go off the 8m high Olympic start hill so we were moved onto the amateur 5m hill and with only one practice run we were thrown into racing.
Devastated
Originally the format was to go as follows - 3 heats at 1.30pm - 3.30pm; 2 hour break; 1/8ths, 1/4s, 1/2 and the final from 5.30 - 7.30.
They replaced three heats with just one so you had to qualify top 4 every round. All the riders dealt with this quick changeover very well and we all got on with it.
I won my first heat very confidently to qualify myself into the 1/8th final. I was feeling very relaxed and confident.
I was cautious in my first race not to wheel spin out of the gate as it was very wet. I would try harder in my 1/8th race. So I did and unfortunately it didn't pay off.
I slipped and was dead last. I tried making a comeback, but with the wet conditions I couldn't find a suitable move to do in a corner without sliding out. Devastated!
This was the first time I had felt this confident going into a race since I started racing Elite and I thought a final was achievable. But I'll take that away with me to the next World Cup in Sweden in a couple weeks.
It was strange because when the racing was supposed to start at 5.30, the weather had been perfect! Sun and no wind. It's a shame the officials panicked as things could have panned out very differently. You live and learn!
WHAT'S COMING UP FOR OUR SCHOLARS..............
August 2-9: Siobhan-Marie O’Connor - World Swimming Championships, Russia
August 3-9: Quillan Isidore, National BMX Championships
August 5: One year countdown to the Rio Olympics begins
August 8-18: Lucy Garner, Route de France
August 8-9: Mark English, Irish National Championships
