Olympic gold medallist Saya Sakakibara has eased through qualifying to secure a spot in Sunday's finals rounds, but the Australian will face a stern test if she wants to walk away as the 2026 BMX women's world champion.
Sakakibara, the Paris Olympics gold medallist who is chasing her maiden BMX world championship, posted the second fastest women's time of the day in Saturday's action in Brisbane.
Great Britain's reigning world champion Bethany Shriever posted the fastest women's time.
Shriever has won three of the past five BMX world championships, and looms as Sakakibara's biggest threat for the title.
But Sakakibara will have the huge advantage of having a home crowd cheering her on when she competes for glory on Sunday.
"At the top of the start hill, I could hear everyone cheering and it just put a huge smile on my face," Sakakibara said.
"Usually, I'm up there and I'm really anxious and really stressed, but this time around I felt really relaxed, although I did have some shakes but that's normal.
"I stayed in control out there and I think I put down a pretty good lap."
In the men's elite competition, Australian star Jesse Asmus finished with the fastest men's time of the day.
"They called my name out there and there was a massive cheer and I feel like that gave me a good boost to have a real crack down the first straight," Asmus said.
"Having the home crowd gave me some extra oomph and I could hear the crowd the whole way around the track which was really cool.
"Still things to work on (for Sunday) getting down the hill a little stronger, but I think that's an easy fix.
"I just made a little mistake in my heat and I'll be able to correct that for tomorrow."
Fellow Australian Izaac Kennedy, who was a silver medallist at the last world championships, crashed on Friday in practice and was ruled out of the weekend's racing.
Four-time Australian Olympian Lauren Reynolds and rising Brisbane star Teya Rufus also secured their spots in Sunday's finals.
