Southsea Skatepark has been home to some incredible BMX and skateboarding talent over the last 40 years it has been open, and this continues with not one, not two, but THREE riders from Portsmouth in the British Cycling Team for Tokyo Olympics 2020! In total six talented British BMX Freestyle Park riders have been accepted onto the Great Britain Cycling Team’s world class programme, including Southsea local Declan Brooks. Declan has been killing it for years and currently is quickly recovering from an ankle injury. The team also includes Jack Clark, James Jones, Emma Finnegan, Charlotte Worthington and Alex Coleborn, who has also spent a lot of time at Southsea Skatepark too. The other Southsea locals are Mark Webb and Ben Wallace (who now lives in America), who were both identified during selection and will be working proactively with British Cycling too. You can meet the team and watch them ride during selection camp in the USA in the video below.
Performance director Stephen Park explains: “We have been progressing our BMX Freestyle Park plans at a rapid rate over the past few months and I’m really pleased that we are now quickly developing a structure to fulfil our Olympic ambitions.
“We have identified who we believe to be the most talented BMXers in the country and I’m pleased we are able to offer them support through the programme to help progress their development.
“Our new squad had a great start to the world cup season, with Alex Coleborn and Charlotte Worthington both finishing in the top six at the world cup in Hiroshima earlier this month, and I look forward to seeing this standard of performance develop as we move through the season.”
Southsea Skatepark is celebrating its 40th birthday this year and is run by a charitable trust and aims to create a space where people young and old, from all backgrounds, can get involved in skateboarding, BMX and more. Spectators can enter for free so be sure to drop by and maybe catch Declan and Mark tearing the park up soon.
Website: southseaskatepark.org
Facebook: facebook.com/southsea.skatepark.7
Twitter: twitter.com/parksouthsea
Instagram: instagram.com/southseaskatepark
Southsea Skatepark
Clarence Esplanade
Southsea
PO5 3NZ
023 9229 5360
mail@southsea
Incredible sunset photo of Declan Brooks at Southsea Skatepark is by photographer Máté Hocopán, follow on Instagram HERE to check out more great photography.
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