Young sports star wins Kathmandu Coast to Coast race entry
Tuesday 14 June 2016, 5:24PM
By enthuse
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Current New Zealand cross country Under 17 mountain bike champion Cameron Jones was the happy winner of a free entry into the 2017 Kathmandu Coast to Coast, won at last week’s 3D Rotorua Multisport Festival.
The fifteen year old from Nelson has shown great ability in a number of sporting disciplines including adventure racing and multi-sport. Cameron was a key member of the Waimea College junior adventure racing team that won the national Get2Go secondary schools crown on Great Barrier Island late last year and was third in the school’s three person teams category in this year’s Coast to Coast.
The talented mountain biker, who was also second in the novice men’s grade in March at the Oceania Mountain Bike Championships, says his real passion lies with multisport and is looking forward to using the entry he won as a spot prize to tackle the two day Coast to Coast individual event.
Kathmandu Coast to Coast Race Director Richard Ussher said Jones was a good example of the growing numbers of secondary school students competing in multi-sport. Multisport is quickly gaining popularity at the secondary schools level, and there is some very exciting talent coming through the schools divisions,” Ussher said.
“We have a focus about growing participation from schools and younger aged competitors in the Kathmandu Coast to Coast as they are the future of the sport.”
The Kathmandu Coast to Coast is an officially sanctioned event of the NZ Secondary School Sports Council. The official schools two day three person team’s category consists of one cyclist, one runner and one kayaker with the minimum age being 14 to compete.
The event has also has heavily reduced entry fees for the official schools category; $750 for a team of three, making it very affordable for school aged competitors. There are also discounts for school students across of all the other event sections.
Competitors must be 18 to race in the One Day Longest Day World Championship event and there are different age restrictions for other categories in the two day event.
The chance to secure one of the 350 early bird discounted entry fees comes to a close on June 30th or when they sell out, with Ussher saying demand has been strong so far with two thirds of the early bird entries already gone.