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Walker star turn in RaboDirect North Island BMX Championships

Friday 21 October 2011, 8:49AM

By Cycling New Zealand

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GISBORNE

World Cup Supercross World Champion Sarah Walker will be the star turn at this weekend’s RaboDirect North Island BMX Championships in Gisborne.

Despite a heavy international racing schedule this year, Walker will compete on home soil to provide a tremendous fillip for riders from five years to over 70 years competing this weekend, including the Mighty 11s Test Series between New Zealand and Australia.

The 23 year old, who lives in Cambridge but races for Rotorua, will lead the way for elite riders in the women’s category while the 2010 national champion Kurt Pickard (Tauranga) is the main hope in the elite men’s competition.

Pickard has enjoyed a strong return to international competition this year, qualifying for the quarterfinals at the world championships in Denmark and Supercross World Cup final this year.

With world number one Marc Willers competing in the US and Cambridge elite Kurt James bypassing after a busy racing season in America, Pickard should be untroubled to dominate the men’s competition.
His main competition is likely to come from Taranaki rider Matthew Cameron who made his return to international competition at the recent UCI Supercross World Cup in California.

There will be fierce competition in the junior elite classes between a number of promising young riders who have enjoyed international experience in the BikeNZ High Performance programme this year.
All of the age group riders who achieved podium placings at this year’s world championships in Copenhagen will be competing led by world champions Lachlan Stevens-McNab (Rotorua) and local Gisborne star Abigail Fox.

There will also be interest in the debut of Gisborne’s Monique Smith, a double silver medallist in the 16 years class at the world championships, in to the junior women’s category.

There are a number of top ranked Australians competing with the focus on the return test of the Mighty 11s between Australia and New Zealand after the kiwis won the earlier encounter in emphatic fashion in Sydney in June.

The North Island title for elites will be decided on Saturday with UCI Olympic qualifying points for the elite men and women who will contest three motos and a final.

Elites- junior and elite combined - will contest the Superclass on Sunday decided over three qualifying motos and the top eight for men and women to contest three finals.

The Mighty 11s compete over three rounds on Saturday and two on Sunday with the Challenge age group classes contesting four motos on Saturday with a further two motos and finals on Sunday.