BMX: Track comes through tough weather well

Part of the huge crowd in attendance look on as Sage Piebenga of New Plymouth flies over the early jumps in the 8-year-old girls semifinals.Photo/George Novak

The TECT Cambridge BMX Park in Tauranga came through its toughest test with flying colours after the hugely successful hosting of the 2014 BMX National Championships over Easter weekend.

Wild weather, larger than expected crowds and more than 900 enthusiastic competitors aged five to 50 made it a weekend to remember for the Tauranga BMX Club.

It was hosting the nationals for the first time and had to contend with unexpected problems.

Meeting manager Jillian Peck said they had to quickly change the congested programme after the heavy downpours on Thursday and Friday morning.

"What we were planning to do on Saturday was the seeding round so that got cancelled because of the weather and Friday's programme got transferred to Saturday," she said.

"Everything we planned to do on Friday particularly the Mighty 11 trials, the elite practices and all that sort of stuff, happened Saturday.

"Sunday we ran straight into three rounds of mixed motos and then into your finals, semifinals and quarter-finals and dead man finals."

Peck said the rain was a huge test for the track's durability but it performed superbly and early concerns about the rain keeping away the spectators never eventuated.

"We sold out of burgers, chips and sausages. It really has been awesome and if the weather had played nicely we would have had nothing to complain about. We had some issues with car parking but we came through those."

Peck says BMX has been on an upwood surge since the 2012 Olympics but boomed again after the world champs at the Vector Arena last year.

"It is the family thing. You can have your five-year-old daughter riding and your 65-year-old grandad. It is individual but it is also team as well with club teams riding."

Olympian Kurt Pickard is the ideal local role model for all Tauranga BMX members and yesterday made the semifinals of the World Cup Supercross in Manchester.

His sister Shania Rawson, 15, is rated number six in the world and competed for the Tauranga BMX Club at the weekend's nationals.

She says Kurt has a huge influence over the sport with how well he is doing on the world stage. "I am very proud. He is riding really good at the moment and I am just loving watching him."

Full results: www.bikenz.org.nz