Mountain biking: Up-and-comer steals women's race

Rotorua's Louis Hamilton took out the men's division at the Skyline Sprint Warrior. Photo / Ben Fraser

Rotorua's Louis Hamilton and young up-and-comer Shania Rawson have taken top honours at the Skyline Sprint Warrior.

The downhill mountain bike event made a return on a gnarly course under the gondolas on Mt Ngongotaha on Saturday, after last being held in 2014. More than 100 top downhillers and weekend warriors took part in the event riding down the 1.2km course as quick as possible.

"It was good to get the event up and running again because we missed last year," organiser Adrian Ashmore said.

"The feedback I got was the riders really enjoyed the course, and it was a fun course to ride. It was not really big jumps it was more of a sprint course."

Hamilton took out the men's race in a time of 1m 57s, just two seconds ahead of another local rider, Keegan Wright, making his return to racing after a terrible crash in February. Hamilton also performed well at Crankworx Rotorua last month where he finished second in the Air DH event (a downhill race).

Another Rotorua rider, Daniel Self finished third at the weekend, four seconds behind Hamilton.

In the women's race, Rotorua-based Australian rider Ronja Hill-Wright was the rider to beat going into the event. However, she had to settle for second after young rider Rawson (Papamoa) took out the race in 2m 11s, four seconds ahead of Hill-Wright.

"Shania is a young up-and-comer, she is only 17," Ashmore said. "Ronja was definitely the one to beat but the conditions changed throughout the race run."

He said plenty of rain on Saturday afternoon meant each rider could only have one race run. It was originally planned to have two race runs each, with the best time counting. Hamilton and Rawson both collected $500 for winning the event.

The Hukkit Sick Trick title, which included a $100 reward, was won by local rider Nathan Saunders who works at Skyline. He won the best trick award following a no-hander.

The Mountain Bike Rotorua Fundy Hundy title, for the best rider weighing over 100kg, went to Matt Tew. Ashmore thanked all their sponsors for their help.

Results:

Men: 1 Louis Hamilton (Rotorua) 1m 57s, 2 Keegan Wright (Rotorua) 1m 59s, 3 Daniel Self (Rotorua) 2m 01s.

Women: 1 Shania Rawson (Papamoa) 2m 11s, 2 Ronja Hill-Wright (Rotorua) 2m 15s, 3 Cati Pearson (Rotorua) 2m 26s.