Cameron Wood, Alise Willoughby Race Into Podium Finishes At BMX Racing World Cup

Alise Willoughby competes during the women's BMX quarterfinals at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 on July 29, 2021 in Tokyo.

Cameron Wood finished his best BMX racing season with a podium finish in the last world cup event of the year Sunday in Bogota, Colombia.
Wood, who finished second in the season standings, placed third in the Round 8 men’s final and joined three-time Olympian Alise Willoughby on the podium on the final weekend of racing. Willoughby finished second to world cup champion Laura Smulders of the Netherlands in the Round 7 women’s final Saturday.
Wood, a 20-year-old from Avondale, Arizona, made the men’s final in the last five rounds of the world cup. The only time he didn’t make the podium was Saturday, when he finished last in the Round 7 final.
Wood’s late season charge carried him into the runner-up position in the world cup standings and within 288 points of season champion and 2020 Olympian Sylvain André of France.
He won his first career world cup race Sept. 25 in Bogota and also had a pair of second-place finishes this season. He finished ninth at the UCI BMX Racing World Championships.
After winning his semifinal heat, Wood finished behind France’s Joris Daudet and Great Australia’s Izaac Kennedy in Sunday’s final.
Willoughby reached the podium for the third consecutive time Saturday, finishing less than half a second behind Smulders. In three women’s finals over the last two weekends of the season, Willoughby had a pair of second-place finishes and one third-place finish. She finished fourth at the world championships.
Felicia Stancil, a 2020 Olympian, finished fifth in Sunday’s final and was the leading American in the world cup women’s standings with a ninth-place finish. Her best finish was third in Round 3 in June.