Tinaye Agere
Sports Reporter
Zimbabwe’s top motocross riders are expected to meet at Donnybrook today for the fifth round of the ongoing national championships.
Nine races have been lined up, with six of them — the MX1, MX2, 125cc, 85cc, 65cc and 50cc — being classified as part of the national championships. The highlight of the day will be the 65cc race, which has 10 riders aged between six and eight years.
Overall, it has the highest number of riders at this year’s championships.
Kudzwai Chitsurura will try to cement his position at the top of the table with 99 points going into today’s round.
He faces stiff competition from Elroy Shamuyarira, Jayden Kerwin and Victor Nyamupfukudzwa, who are in second, third and fourth positions, respectively.
Mudiwa Sakupwanya, Chris Mupfanechiya and Sebastian Wright, who had a slow start to the season, are expected to come back strong in the last half of the championships as they want to remain within touching distance for a possible podium finish.
Nyamupfukudzwa might be placed fourth in the 65cc but he leads the 50cc class for the five- to nine-year-old age group with 112 points.
He will look to fend off challenges from Cameroon Fraser and Michael Krauser, who are closely following with 108 and 90 points each. Mudiwa’s younger brother, Judah Sakupwanya, has also experienced a slow start to the season and will be hoping to improve in the last five rounds of the championships.
Popular racer Emmanuel Bako, who has more than 40 medals to his name since he started motocross racing at the age of two, will battle it out with Dayan Manuel and Regan Wasmuth in the MX2 class, which is made up of those who are aged 15 and above.
Zimbabwe Motorsport spokesperson Jamie Kerwin said the riders are raring to go.
“There is always a lot of build-up to the events and all the riders competing feel the pressure to perform in their respective classes, so we are expecting some fierce competition from the classes,” said Kerwin.
Online Reporter