All hail the champion !!!

The main reason for the timing of our trip north, if not the actual trip itself, was the BMX Nationals in Cambridge over Easter weekend.

Originally the plan was to take both rugrats (S was over the moon when she finished her third qualifying meeting and was eligible to race ... the week before she broke her arm and rendered herself ineligible again) ... then we were down to one racer ... and then none due to some wildly inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour from K ...

However, the MOTH and I had one of those parental-what-the-hell-are-we-gonna-do-now type chats, and decided to register K without telling him what we were doing (with the thought that if his behaviour improved markedly, at least we hadn't "burnt the bridge" of participation so to speak). His principal played along nicely and set K holiday homework whereby he had the task of videtaping the Nationals and giving a presentation to the school when he got back.

K didn't think it at all unusual that we still packed his bike up, and included his racing gear and helmet in our luggage for our trip north. He was hoping that if he behaved himself, and supported the rest of our team properly, he "might" be allowed to ride around the track a few times after it was all over ...

After two awesome days of racing, some nail biting finishes, spectacular crashes, awe inspiring jumps and riding ... K can now throw away his 151 plate and ride next year with the plate NZ33 !!!!*


And for one of the smallest clubs in the country, Dunedin did extremely well. Two of our eight riders made it to the semi-finals, and five finished in the top 20 in the country. Yay us !!!

I should also point out at this stage that the MOTH was so impressed with K's feat that he bought him a new bike. I shudder to think what it will cost us if he ever ranks NZ1 !!!



* BMX rules state that riders are not allowed to ride with numbers under 100 unless they have earnt them (ie. a NZ ranking) ... K is now ranked 33 in NZ for 9yo boys (which happened to be the largest age group with 44 riders)