Motocross: Top Otago pair in action this weekend

Courtney Duncan
Courtney Duncan
Two of Otago's top riders will be gunning for glory in their respective divisions at the New Zealand veterans' and women's motocross championships in Canterbury this weekend.

Palmerston powerhouse Courtney Duncan is a clear favourite to win against the women at the Southbridge track, south of Christchurch. She decimated the women's field at last month's annual MX Fest event in Taupo, beating her rivals home by more than a minute in each of the three races.

Duncan (18) said she had her first race this season in August and the last three months have been about ''building up and getting better and better''.

She felt she ''got the ball rolling'' in Taupo, where she not only beat the women but claimed the 125cc class win racing the opposite sex.

Duncan laughed when asked who she prefers to battle on a motocross track, men or women.

''The guys. It's definitely harder; they don't like getting beaten by a chick,'' she said.

Fortunately, at this particular race meeting the men have nothing to fear, as their ages put them out of her reach. The youngest of the veterans, at 30, will be nearly double Duncan's age.

Among them will be Queenstown's Scott Columb (31), who will be attending his first veterans' event. He was going to ''give it a crack'' as a low-key build-up to two major races in December: the Auckland Championships at the beginning of the month and the Summercross event in Whakatane at the end.

He was undecided whether he would contest the New Zealand Supercross Championship on November 27 in Winton, which is part of the Burt Munro Challenge (November 27-30).

However, Columb's Altherm JCR Yamaha Racing Team manager Josh Coppins, of Motueka, plans to ride his super moto bike at the four-day event and as part of his trip down south will contest the national veterans' championships this weekend, for the first time.

Coppins, who was the 250cc world No 2 in 2002 and the 2005 MX1 world No 2, joins an entry list that reads like a who's who and who-used-to-be-who of the sport.

The 37-year-old was also a multiple former New Zealand and British champion, and has never really stopped riding since retiring from top-level competition after winning the Australian open class title in 2012.

 -by Catherine Pattison 

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