adminCollin Matiza Sports Editor
TWO of Zimbabwe’s top motocross riders Jayden Ashwell and Kuda Mhene (Jnr) are set to leave the country this week to take part in different national championship events in South Africa and Uganda. Zimbabwe’s champion rider Ashwell is scheduled to leave for Johannesburg on Thursday to compete in this weekend’s South African National Motocross Championship at Syringa Park in Muldersdrift.
The one-day event, which will take place on Saturday, will bring together all the top South African motocross riders who will be joined by Zimbabwe’s Ashwell.
The Zimbabwean motocrosser will be competing in the main and most competitive MX1 Class.
Ashwell confirmed on Sunday during the Bogwheelers Club’s National Championship race meeting at Donnybrook in Harare that he will be leaving for Johannesburg on Thursday to take part in the South African National Motocross Championship at Syringa Park.
Ashwell will be using this weekend’s event at Muldersdrift to fine-tune himself for the greatest Supercross event ever staged in Africa — the first-ever “Monster Energy Supercross Africa” which will be held at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa, on November 1.
In what has been described as “the most physically demanding sport in existence”, the event will challenge the world’s best riders on an intricately designed and physically demanding Supercross track, featuring tons of dirt and sculpted obstacles.
And Ashwell is really looking forward to competing in this big international Supercross event which he said will bring together “top class” international riders from the United States, Europe, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. But he first has to start by impressing at this weekend’s last race of the 2014 South African National Motocross Championship at Syringa Park in Muldersdrift, which is just outside Johannesburg.
“The whole of this season I’ve been racing in South Africa but things were not going according to plan but this week I will be going to Joburg to compete and see how it goes in the last race of their National Championship series.
“In fact, in South Africa this year, I did the first race in February but I crashed, breaking my collar bone in the process. The next time I raced there was last month and things didn’t go according to plan again. I think I finished sixth overall, so it wasn’t too good for me.
“And then I went Down South again two weeks later after that and I got a third place finish (overall), so it is getting better and I’ll be going back there again this weekend and see how it goes.
“But like I said before, this year hasn’t gone according to plan because of the injury I sustained in February. I was also meant to go back to the United States but then I broke my collar bone and I couldn’t get there. But I’ve got another big race coming up on November 1 — the Monster Energy Supercross Africa — at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria,” Ashwell said.
The talented rider is oozing with confidence after tearing the field apart during Sunday’s Bogwheelers Club’s national championship event in which he won all his three races in the main MX1 Class.
Meanwhile, promising young rider Mhene (Jnr) is also set to leave the country tomorrow for Uganda where he has been invited to race in that country’s national championship event at the weekend.
Online Reporter