St. Cloud Native Wins BMX World Championship

HEUSDEN-ZOLDER, Belgium (AP) _ Alise Willoughby (Post) won her second BMX world championship, recovering from a crash during one of the early runs Saturday before edging defending champion Laura Smulders in the finals.

Willoughby went down hard in the second turn of her first run, but she bounced back to roll into the quarterfinals. The 2017 world champ advanced with U.S. teammate Felicia Stancil to the finals, where a perfect start out of the gate allowed her to edge Mulders by 0.445 seconds.

Axelle Etienne of France earned the bronze.

The 2009 St. Cloud Tech High School graduate is a two-time Olympian, winning a silver medal in the Olympics in Rio in 2016. This win marks the start of Willoughby trying to qualify for the 2020 Olympics taking place in Tokyo, Japan.

In the men's championship Saturday, Twan Van Gendt beat countryman Niek Kimmann of the Netherlands to win the men's championship.

Van Gendt breezed to the men's title with a run of 31.345 seconds. Kimmann was more than 4 seconds back in second, while French rider Sylvain Andre took third.