Injury denies Townley of Denver glory

It started so well but unfortunately Taupo's Ben Townley couldn't keep hold of his initial success.
Townley won the first moto at the Motocross of Nations, held in Denver, Colorado last weekend in impressive fashion and helped New Zealand achieve eighth overall.
He was in the New Zealand team alongside Josh Coppins (MX1) and Brad Groombridge (MX2) racing at the 64th edition of the competition.
Townley was the open class representative and one of the favourites to win the individual classification in that class.
In front of a 35,000-strong crowd at the Thunder Valley raceway Townley got off to a good start in the MX2/Open moto.
He quickly shut down fellow Honda racer Andrew Short from the United States and wasted no time in making an aggressive pass, although neither rider wanted to back down.
It was Short who came off second best as Townley managed to keep upright and take the lead. A charging Ken Roczen from Germany made for some exciting racing when he passed Townley but the Kiwi settled into a race rhythm and set up the young German for a great pass. Townley succeeded in establishing a comfortable lead to put Team New Zealand high up on the scoreboard with his superb victory.
The final and deciding MX1/Open moto again saw Townley challenging for the win. With the US duo of Ryan Dungey and Andrew Short out in front Townley closed in on Short and made the move with five laps gone. Townley pushed to keep Dungey honest. However, near the halfway mark he made a vital mistake and went down hard, twisting his ankle in the process. Townley remounted and tried to complete another lap but had to retire with a sprained ankle.
"It was great winning the first moto," Townley said.
"There were so many Kiwi supporters cheering us on today and to win for them is amazing. Of course I'm disappointed with my crash in the second moto. Luckily nothing is broken, just some swelling and pain so I should be okay in a few days.
"The Motocross of Nations is a such a special event to me - the camaraderie between the teams is great to see and experience.
"I'm proud of what we achieved with Josh and Brad and look forward to next year," he said.
Overall team results: USA 1, Belgium 2, Germany 3, Great Britain 4, Italy 5, Australia 6, France 7, New Zealand 8, Portugal 9, Puerto Rico 10.