BRAINTREE Bullets BMX Club can now count in their number their first World Champion following some great success at the UCI BMX World Championships in Zolder in Belgium.

Fifteen Bullets took the trip to the championships to compete among 3,750 entries from over 50 countries across the globe.

Freia Challis dominated the 11 year old girls' class as she went unbeaten through her race day in all her heats and qualifying rounds.

The youngster from Halstead was undoubtedly the fastest in the class on her route to the final where she was to compete against the top eight racers on the day that included four other British girls.

Off the gate, Challis took charge and was five bike lengths ahead on the exit of the first turn that gave her an unassailable lead.

Down the final straight, the British spectators were on their feet to cheer her to the line where she punched the air in triumph. Bullets chairman Richard Watts said: “The Braintree coaching team have left no stone unturned in preparation for the club's racers heading to the event.

"Freia has been totally focused on achieving her goal, showing maturity beyond her years.

"We are over the moon with what she has achieved and feel that this is only the start of a really dominant career in the sport.”

Following up on Challis' success was Theia Gaynor in the 12s.

Gaynor is a relatively new Bullets member but has become an integral part of their training regime and is fully committed to her development which has led to national wins and given her the confidence to compete at World level.

Through the day's racing, she grew in confidence and stature and her second place finish in the final is testament to all the hard work she has been doing.

World Championship veteran Oli Cutmore also made the finals in the 25-29 cruiser class.

Cutmore has been in three world finals previously and kept consistent through the qualifying rounds to take his gate in the final eight.

Down the first straight the pack bunched and Cutmore narrowly avoided crashing as the riders barrelled into the first corner. Undeterred, he pushed on and kept on the pace for a strong seventh-place finish.

The 26-year-old from Hedingham also competed in the 25-29 BMX class and made the semi-final stages showing his depth of skill and fitness.

Narrowly missing out on the finals in the 13-14 cruiser class was Adam Gilbert.

The Colchester local had been among the top performers on his journey through the day's racing, but the semi-final races were electric and a moment of hesitation from Gilbert saw him having to settle for sixth where the top four are the only ones to go through to the finals.

Gilbert was joined in the day's racing in the class by club-mates Joseph Harris, Josh Cates, Cameron Parrish and Joe Little.

Heath Thomas made the 1/8th finals in the nines after a superb run of race wins through the heats as did James Yeo in the 50+ cruiser class but their days ended there.

Josh Butson, in the 17-24 men, and Seb Pantlin, in the 15s, also had great runs through the heats, but got caught out in the 1/16th finals.

Also competing for the Bullets were Chloe Ollet in the 14s, Roxy Hinton in the 15s and Molly Nice in the 16s.