A Cochrane boy is back from competing at the 2024 BMX Racing World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina. 

Zach Chubey competed against 111 boys his age from 24 countries. Each competitor participated in three qualification races (motos). The top 64 racers advanced to the 1/8 finals, where they needed to finish in the top four in each subsequent race to move onto the 1/4 finals, 1/2 finals, and the finals.

Chubey achieved his goal of making it past the qualifiers and ended the day ranked 45th out of 111.

The 11-year-old was the highest-ranked Canadian in his age group and the only one to advance past the qualifiers.

The grade five student said he first hopped on a BMX bike when he was just three and a half years old. 

"I guess I just loved it a lot and then I did my first provincial race in Alberta when I was five. I started going to British Columbia one or two years ago and then Bakersfield was my first United States race this year." 

Zach ChubeyChubey placed 45th out of 111.

Competing at that level was an experience Chubey will never forget. 

"Very nerve wracking at first and then once you're in the gate, which is the starting point, it drops and then everything goes away. It's definitely cool and interesting to walk into the track and see all the different countries there, we had Argentina, Australia, Japan, plenty of different places." 

Zach Chubey Zach Chubey popped by 91.5 CochraneNow to talk about competing at the 2024 BMX Racing World Championships.

Seven members from Cochrane BMX competed at the event.

Zach and his team From left: Phebe Bass, Zach Chubey, Solvay Semmens, Bruno Fernandez, Dominick Gosselin-Berg, Jaxson Ross and Cole Newsome 

Canada had approximately 300 racers, making it the second highest number next to the USA, which had nearly 1,000 racers.

There were approximately 2500 individual racers from 41 different countries. 

Chubey also plays competitive hockey but trains for BMX racing year-round. He has some advice for other kids who are just starting out in the BMX world. 

"Just start small and work up to what you want to do and then go from there."  

Zach Chubey The UCI 2024 BMX Racing World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina May 8-18

The 2025 Worlds will be in Copenhagen, Denmark.