Burnham-On-Sea’s Mayor has congratulated the town’s BMX cyclist Liam Phillips this week after he became the sport’s world champion at the weekend.
As reported here, Liam Phillips produced a sensational performance to become the BMX world champion in Auckland, New Zealand, on Sunday (July 28th).
Mayor Martin Cox told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “I am so pleased for Liam – he has trained very hard in his challenge to become world champion and we send our congratulations to him on his fantastic achievement.”
“Liam’s win will help to put Burnham and Highbridge on the map in the BMX world. I also hope it will give Burnham BMX Club and their facilities at Apex Park a boost as more youngsters want to get involved.”
Burnham BMX Club’s secretary, Philip Brazil, added: “It’s been a long time coming, but we are all so pleased for Liam. This is the pinnacle of his work so far. It’s incredible to have won after his injuries last year, but we all knew he could do it!”
Liam, 24, has been an active member of Burnham BMX Club since the age of four and is a former pupil of Berrow School and Highbridge’s King Alfred School.
He won the world title by winning every race en route to the final and was visibly emotional as the reality of his achievement sunk in.
“It feels amazing, the reward for the hours spent training, we dedicate our lives to this,” Liam said.
“A huge amount of credit needs to go the guys at British Cycling from Grant White to everyone else I work with. What you see here is the end product of so much hard work, it’s been a fantastic race, incredible.”
“Apart from 2011, I’ve been to every worlds since 1996 when I was a kid. It’s the first time I’ve won. We knew it would be tight and planned for this. I knew my form was quite good when I won the Manchester World Cup, but then I made mistakes at the next two world cups in Europe. I just wanted to keep the mistakes to a minimum and I managed that.”
