Australian Sam Fox became the first Australian in 10 years to claim the elite men’s cross-country title with a stunning performance and Olympian Sammie Maxwell (New Zealand) defended her title at the 2025 Oceania Mountain Bike Championships in Queenstown, New Zealand on Saturday 22 March.

In under 23 events Ethan Rose (New Zealand) went back to back and Marie Laurie (New Zealand) took gold. Connor Wright and Kayley McMillan (New Zealand) claimed their first Oceania crowns in the under 19 category.

Fox is just the second person in 10 years to stand on the top step of the elite men’s podium, with Anton Cooper (New Zealand) winning every edition since 2016.

The duo were closely matched at the beginning of the seven lap race. Cooper had a small lead as they started the second lap and built it to over 30 seconds with three laps completed.

It was on lap four that disaster struck for Cooper, who had long reigned supreme at the Oceania Championships with a flat tyre costing him his lead and allowing the Australian to take a one minute advantage. A valiant effort by Cooper was not enough to regain the time.

Fox finished just shy of a minute clear to add the elite crown to his under 19 title from 2017. Cooper finished with silver, his 12th consecutive medal at Oceania Championships dating back to 2013 where he won the under 23 race. Samuel Shaw (New Zealand) completed the podium.

“It has been a busy couple of weeks, I finished up our National titles in some pretty torrential conditions and came straight home and back to work with Cycleways for the last few days, so I didn’t really get to touch the bike until course recon yesterday ,” Fox said of his successful two weekends that saw him claim the Australia title last weekend.

“This was pretty enjoyable. We just dodged the rain, which is great. A great course. a great weekend so far.

“The fun is fast adage is really paying off. Had a lot of momentum from the last year of training professionally and kind of carrying that through with less volume. Obviously that momentum will drop off as the training volume does as well but riding the wave for now.”

Maxwell confirmed her status as Oceania’s top female cross-country rider with another dominant display in the elite women’s race. Maxwell, a former under 23 world champion and top 10 finished at the 2024 Paris Olympics opened a lead of nearly one and a half minutes and continued to put the power down over the rest of the race taking the title by nearly 15 minutes on her closest competitor Zoe Cuthbert (Australia), with Mary Gray (New Zealand) completing the podium.

“It was epic hey,” said a delighted Maxwell on her back-to-back Oceania titles. “It’s such a brutal course and it’s one of those courses that if you can’t quite get up the climbs the lap times get way slower, so I knew it was gonna be a matter of keeping within my limits for the first bit of the race.

“It was good, got all the climbs so I was happy and didn’t blow out too much I think.”

The under 23 men’s race was close competition between two-time defending champion Rose and 2024 under 19 silver medallist Harry Doye (Australia). They were closely matched over the first two laps before Doye put in a surge on lap three to take a small lead. It was short lived before Rose upped the pace and stormed ahead and race to the finish to claim gold and make it three in a row. Bronze went to Reuben Page-Brown (Australia).

“It’s tough around here, lots of steep climbs and not really many places to rest. So, I paced it pretty well and kind of let a few guys kind of ride off at the start just hoping they would go a little hard and then pull it back,” said Rose who was the first across the line across the three categories.

“Kind of ended up doing that. Anton got a bit unlucky with a flat tyre. Connor [Wright], Sam Fox and I found ourselves at the front battling away and managed to get a gap with two laps to go and just kind of sent it from there and went to the end so stoked!”

After finishing second a year ago, Laurie claimed her first under 23 Oceania title adding to her under 19 crown from two years ago. The rising Kiwi star who won the first round of the Continental Series was in a league of her own finishing the opening lap two minutes clear of her closest rival and building an unassailable lead. Silver went to Ella Menigoz (Australia) with Amelie Mackay collecting back-to-back bronze medals.

“It was pretty brutal up the hills, yeah it was a real old race and there is so much climbing there is not really any rest, but it was fun, some of it,” Laurie explained.

Australia’s Wright earned his first Oceania title with a stellar performance in the under 19 men’s race. Wright a two time winner in the 2025 Oceania Continental Mountain Bike Series was tightly matched with silver medallist Fletcher Adams (New Zealand) over the first lap before he pulled away on the second and rode his own race to the finish, nearly two minutes clear of Adams. James Climo (New Zealand) who was the overall winner of the Continental Series finished third.

“The course was pretty brutal, really steep climbs today but rewarded with some pretty good descents. A tough race with the New Zealand boys close on my tail and kept me pushing all the way to the end,” Wright said on the challenging course and competition,” Wright said.

“At the start of the second lap I put the hammer down a bit and saw a little gap open and just kept pushing through the rest of the race and opened up a comfortable lead.”

McMillan added further success to her name in 2025 by dominating the under 19 women’s race. As the inform rider McMillan who won the final two rounds of the Continental Series looked unbeatable all race as she built a near one minute lead on the opening lap. At the conclusion of five laps, she took gold over five minutes clear of compatriot Millie Junge in silver and Annie Kleywegt (Australia) with bronze.

Results – Full Results
Elite Men
Gold: Sam Fox (Australia)
Silver: Anton Cooper (New Zealand)
Bronze: Samuel Shaw (New Zealand)

Elite Women
Gold: Sammie Maxwell (New Zealand)
Silver: Zoe Cuthbert (Australia)
Bronze: Mary Gray (New Zealand)

Under 23 Men
Gold: Ethan Rose (New Zealand)
Silver: Harry Doye (Australia)
Bronze: Reuben Page-Brown (Australia)

Under 23 Women
Gold: Marie Laurie (New Zealand)
Silver: Ella Menigoz (Australia)
Bronze: Amelie Mackay (New Zealand)

Junior Men
Gold: Connor Wright (Australia)
Silver: Fletcher Adams (New Zealand)
Bronze: James Climo (New Zealand)

Junior Women
Gold: Kayley McMillan (New Zealand)
Silver: Millie Junge (New Zealand)
Bronze: Annie Kleywegt (Australia)