BMX - Sights set on Olympic gold

THE lure of Olympic gold has dispelled lingering perceptions that BMX racing was an 1980s fad and the Whangarei BMX Club is focused on what will be a very important year for the sport in the area.
Whangarei is one of the biggest and most active clubs in the country and has been awarded hosting rights for the 2009 national championships, club spokesman Stu Bell said.
"I think we're one of the top five clubs in the country as far as numbers go, and we've had some pretty successful riders in competition - what we want now is for one of them to carry through into the Olympic level," he said.
The club weathered the boom and bust period which saw the sport flourish nationally before membership decreased throughout the 1990s.
"The numbers are coming up again now, especially since it has become an Olympic sport, and an exciting one at that. It makes a great spectacle for an audience," he said.
He said before the sport reached Olympic recognition, it was common to see successful juniors graduating to other forms of cycling - now there was more reason to stay competing as a BMX rider.
As a part of its plans to host the nationals, the club has been working with the Whangarei District Council to upgrade its club track into an international level facility.
There are still two options open to the club - to upgrade the existing track or relocate the track to another place at William Fraser/Pohe Island Park area.
"We hope to develop an international standard facility - either way - but our preference would be to start fresh, that way we get a blank canvas to work with, there would be more space for parking, better administration facilities and a better venue overall," he said.
WDC Parks technical officer Aubery Gifford said the council had already agreed in principle to a new site for the track.
"It would avoid the new harbour crossing, if and when that happens, and it would also fit into a time, where most of the biking interests in town will amalgamate at Pohe Island and use the old recycling building as their base," he said.
Gifford said the idea to use Pohe Island as a cycling base was still a proposal but there was a level of urgency about developing the BMX track because of 2009 nationals and the only sticking point was the level of council funding the club could expect for their track project.
Bell agreed saying that all parties were coming close to consensus and that meant that the track could be started on time.
"We've got quite a tight timeline because we have to have our track built by Easter 2008 - so that there's 12 months for testing and fine-tuning the track, it's a safety procedure that we have to follow," Bell said.
Bell said the track would have an elite component, that could be left out when juniors and others used it for club competition.
The BMX club, Parihaka Mountain Bike Club, Whangarei Mountain Bike Club and Marsden Wheelers have formed Bike Northland, an incorporated society that aims to develop cycling in the region.
The aim is to develop a structure that will be able to organise learn-to-cycle classes right through to collaborating on building projects - and that's where the bike park idea at Pohe Island has come from.
* Impressive showing from Northland riders THE need to upgrade Whangarei BMX Club's facilities was emphasised on Saturday when the start ramp suffered a mechanical failure, shortening the annual "Ride by the Tide" event on Saturday.
The popular event was attended by over 130 riders from nine clubs, with 51 local riders in attendance.
The wet weather, combined with the malfunctioning gate, led organisers to run only four of the scheduled five motos.
Without a gate for several races, the starting was done by flags with riders having to start with one foot on the pedal and the other on the ground, causing a bit of excitement and adding some colour to the grey day.
Whangarei rider Shane Eady showed spectators some impressive jumping skills, highlighting why he has been selected in the national senior test team this year to compete against Australia.
Four other local riders also impressed by completing clean sweeps in their respective classes.
Bayleigh Rees confirmed his growing reputation in the sport by winning all of his nine-year-old races in the 20-inch class and also managing a perfect record in the cruiser class 8-10 age group.
Donald Ross also won all of the 11-16 year cruiser class races, while Jayden Carter won the 20-inch year-nine class and Rowan Vendt had a clean sweep in the over-17 class.