Birmingham – 22^nd May 2012

Majority of the SA riders arrived safely in Birmingham on the 19^th May on a typically cold and miserable day. Team South Africa comprising of 58 Challenge, 5 Championship and around 50 spectators is a record attendance for a Worlds event and the spirits are extremely high.  The total world’s entries are 2108 from 35 nations which is slightly lower than last year.

 To put it into perspective, the track is 302m and the total staging area is 350m so the team management comprising of 10 individuals are going to have their hands full ensuring that no riders miss their moto’s.  Special thanks must go out to these slaves who have given of their time to assist riders in achieving their goals.

 Practise day 1 went extremely well on one of the shortest most technical (typical European) style tracks to-date.  The riders glided through the track with flying colours having been exposed to this type of environment from our SA Championships recently held in Pietermartizburg.  Our first incident came from our daring Jade de Jonge who was the first rider to jump the triple down the first straight.  Many of our youngsters were able to breeze through the track with confidence from Kita Uys all the way through to Shannon Buys.

 We look forward to the next training session on Wednesday at 13h00 for the team to really dial into the track to try and build up a sweat.

 Report by:

Alan Dodd

Team SA Manager

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