The South Island’s leading secondary school riders will tear up and down Signal Hill this weekend in pursuit of glory.
Mountain Biking Otago is hosting the South Island school championships this weekend and the event has attracted a record 275 entries from more than 60 schools.
Racing begins this morning with some downhill races and there are cross-country and super-D titles also up for contention.
Mountain Biking Otago president Kristy Booth said it would be the largest secondary school event held "in quite some time".
"We’ve hosted it for four years and this is the biggest we’ve had," she said.
"To the best of my knowledge I don’t know of another secondary school mountain biking event that has had these sort of numbers."
Wakatipu High School’s Sam Robbie shapes as Otago’s leading prospect. He represented New Zealand at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Australia in September in the junior downhill event.
Riders compete for school glory as well as individual accolades. Canterbury’s Shirley Boys’ High School has 20-plus competitors and is expected to do well in the teams competition.
The event should be finished by 1pm tomorrow.
