By Tara Murray
Liam Quinlivan is hoping home ground advantage will help him at the inaugural Freestyle BMX National Championships next weekend.
While Quinlivan has been born and raised in Sunbury, the Rampfest Indoor Skate Park in Braybrook, where the championships are being held, is one of the skate parks he frequents often.
He said to have championships at that location is pretty special.
“Having a National Championship honestly feels awesome,” he said “It’s really good for the BMX scene which has been a little bit slow and now hopefully it really picks up.
“Braybrook is a good location, it’s one of my locals parks. I train there a lot.”
Quinlivan got into BMX after following his brother down to the Sunbury skate park, where he saw someone do a flip and thought “it was the coolest thing ever”.
From there his passion has grown and seen him travel the world to compete.
This year he took six months off work as a boilermaker to train and compete, returning from China last week.
“It’s pretty difficult in Australia with the population being so small,” he said.
“I’ve had a decent level of success, but the judging and level of riding is tough, that’s the sport.
“I want to keep getting better.”
With the sport to be part of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, riding is set to become even more competitive.
The 21-year-old said he would love to make the Australian team for the Olympics, whether it be this time around or in the future.
“The Olympics are a massive goal,” he said.
“I think I have a chance to make the team. For me it’s 100 per cent or nothing.
“I definitely have lots to prove. I know what I have and I know what I can bring and I’m just going to bring it.”
Quinlivan knows he will have a challenge ahead of him next weekend, but he’s up for it.
“Roughly, at the nationals you’ll have 40 to 50 people. The level of riding is really high, so it makes it interesting.
“I’ve competed against some of them before. You have the Australian team like Logan Martin and Brandon Loupos, Jake Wallwork, Kyle Baldock and Alec Danelutti, they’re all absolute shredders of riders so they’re definitely going to be killing it but we’ll just see who rides best on the day.
“I’m feeling really good, I put in a lot of work this year, I’m feeling fit, I’m feeling strong and I know most of these lines and what I can do, so hopefully I bring fire to this competition.”
Quinlivan said ultimately he would love to be able to make a living from BMX and be an inspiration for those wanting to get into the sport.
“Currently in Australia it’s not really big with sponsorship except right at the top.
“I’ll keep on training the best I can.”
