Kiwi Wins Gold at Unicycle World Championships

Kaikohe’s Christian Huriwai pulled off one of the biggest surprises of the Unicycle World Championships by winning the men’s final in the Street competition. New Zealand has never before won a medal in Street let alone a gold medal. Just as surprising was the failure of defending champion, Frenchman Adrien Delecroix, to make the top three.

Huriwai scored well across each of the three sections while Delecroix spent a considerable amount of his available time trying to perfect a front flip off one of the ramps. This cost him valuable points as he never successfully landed a flip.

Unicycle street freestyle is very similar to skateboarding with tricks such as style grinds, drops and flips are attempted but on one wheel instead of four. Street freestylers put the ‘extreme’ into unicycling as they perform tricks on urban obstacles such as ledges, handrails and stairs with technical proficiency, style and creativity.

The venue for the World Championships was Waitangi Park on Wellington’s waterfront.

New Zealand’s only previous Unicycle World Champion is Ken Looi who won gold in the marathon in 2006.

Unicycle World Championships Street Results

Expert Men

1. Christian Huriwai (New Zealand), 2. Loic Baud (France), 3. Maxwell Schulze (United States)

Expert Women

1. Sophia Pellman (Germany), 2. Irene Genelin (United States)

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