New Zealand Mountain Bike National Championships 2012: Downhill Results

The New Zealand Mountain Bike Championships finished today with the downhill and cross country eliminator events contested on the slopes of Fringed Hill in the Brook Valley, Nelson. The hot, windy weather continued and the sunshine heralded new national champions in two very tough cycling disciplines - one new and one well established.

The downhill event drew a huge crowd, with a win on the Fringed Hill course considered one of the ultimate prizes in New Zealand downhill racing. Right through the lead-up age group categories, the in-form riders from the early part of the New Zealand MTB Cup seemed to hold advantages over their chasing rivals. Two Nelson riders who hadn't yet made NZ Cup appearances upset the form book by winning their categories - Hayden McKay in the Master Men 30-39, and Tania Carson in the Open Women. McKay's win gave him back-to-back championship titles in this very competitive category. Another Nelson rider, Leo Sandler in his first year in the junior U19s won the gold, and in a stunning time that placed him within the top 10 elite times.

But it was the elite contest that captivated the Fringed Hill crowd. Multi-time national champion Harriet Harper held the fastest seeding time in the elite women's category by a mile, but had to settle for second place today after a truly inspired race by Sarah Atkin. Any doubt that the young Lower Hutt downhill exponent could foot it with Harper (the fastest female rider in New Zealand over recent years) was put to rest with her national championship title today.

In the elite men's race, the times were close. Matt Walker attacked from an early start position to lead for some time before Bryn Dickerson unseated him from the top of the leaderboard. New Zealand-based amateur Dickerson put the bike down on the last corner as well, loosing valuable seconds which he would rue while nervously watching the last starters come to the line one by one. George Brannigan (Havelock North) snuck past Dickerson, but Justin Leov confirmed his liking and success history with Nelson race courses to win by just over a second. The downhill national championship win made it two titles for Leov for the weekend, joining his Super D gold from Friday night.

Leov and Atkin will now proudly wear their race jerseys this year on the world stage with right sleeves constructed as a New Zealand flag, the internationally recognised downhill national champions identification.

The New Zealand MTB Cup resumes for downhill in Rotorua on February 11-12.

Full Results

Elite men
#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Justin Leov	0:04:35.33
2	George Brannigan	0:00:01.38
3	Bryn Dickerson	0:00:02.80
4	Kieran Bennett	0:00:03.98
5	Reuben Olorenshaw	0:00:04.33
6	Daniel Franks	0:00:06.31
7	Rupert Chapman	0:00:08.75
8	Matthew Scoles	0:00:09.32
9	Matt Walker	0:00:10.32
10	Hayden Lee	0:00:12.25
11	Luke Stevens	0:00:13.36
12	Joseph Nation	0:00:14.15
13	Wyn Masters	0:00:14.24
14	Richard Leacock	0:00:15.96
15	Nick Bygate	0:00:17.35
16	Sam Perry	0:00:17.56
17	Thomas Mathews	0:00:20.17
18	Daniel Heads	0:00:20.93
19	Jed Rooney	0:00:22.27
20	Dan Sims	0:00:23.63
21	Jarrah Davies	0:00:25.76
22	Eugen-Maxi Dickerhoff	0:00:46.77
23	Sam Stevens	0:00:48.58
24	Sam Baker	0:00:55.55
25	Thomas Jeandin	0:01:27.48
26	Aari Barrett	0:01:34.86
27	James Rennie	0:02:04.82
28	Octavio Teixeira	0:04:33.87
DNF	Reon Boe
DNF	Martin Kuhn
DNF	Jared Graves

Elite women
#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Sarah Atkin	0:05:41.02
2	Harriet Harper	0:00:03.46
3	Anka Martin	0:00:28.33
4	Amy Laird	0:00:36.32
5	Adrienne Hooper	0:00:49.70
6	Julie Berry	0:01:00.35
7	Veronique Sandler	0:01:09.99
DNS	Sophiemarie Bethell

U19 men
#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Leo Sandler	0:04:44.20
2	Reece Potter	0:00:04.98
3	Lawrence Cawte	0:00:12.97
4	Kurt Summerfield	0:00:13.33
5	Jay Barrett	0:00:14.59
6	Jamahl Stringer	0:00:16.67
7	Louis Hamilton	0:00:16.78
8	Tom Burns	0:00:16.81
9	Tim Adams	0:00:28.30
10	Kyle Lockwood	0:00:30.42
11	Michael Melles	0:00:40.52
12	Troy Stewart	0:00:42.44
13	Raphael Kammlein-Cutler	0:00:47.14
14	Thomas Gornall	0:00:50.64
15	Harry Chapman	0:00:51.22
16	Jake Paddon	0:00:53.19
17	Ben Walker	0:00:54.47
18	Andy Wilson	0:00:58.43
19	Elliot Davison	0:01:07.01
20	Alex Faulkner	0:01:10.16
21	James Shipp	0:01:12.65
22	Lloyd Jenks	0:01:16.12
23	Connor Harvey	0:01:20.33
24	Zach Baker	0:01:21.42
25	Callum Sprosen	0:01:21.49
26	Jordan Burns	0:01:25.56
27	Alex Kennett	0:01:33.91
28	JD Devlin	0:01:42.54
29	Luke Hooper	0:02:30.85
DNF	Jack Futter
DNF	Celyn Edwards
DQ	Caelab Drummond
DQ	Jono Ross
DNS	Dan McCombie
DNS	Cole Smith

U17 men
#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Josh McCombie	0:05:19.22
2	Carl Goodwin	0:00:01.18
3	Connor Hamilton	0:00:05.60
4	Hayden Melles	0:00:13.18
5	Jonathon Kennett	0:00:18.29
6	Toby Walker	0:00:24.69
7	Fergus McIntosh	0:00:41.91
8	Gareth Burgess	0:00:47.15
9	Dj Holmes	0:00:49.41
10	Rod Hall	0:00:52.76
11	Laban Sjoberg-Mollison	0:00:57.65
12	Leo Calcasola	0:00:57.67
13	Ben Pointer	0:01:01.62
14	Robert Todhunter	0:01:04.59
15	Thomas Goodman	0:01:10.70
16	Jordan Titchmarsh	0:01:13.42
17	Sam Hendren	0:01:26.31
18	Marcelo Teixeira	0:01:27.99
DNF	William Todhunter
DNS	Jack Humphries
DNS	Richard Scandrett

U15 men
#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Oliver Jarman	0:05:53.89
2	Eden Cruise	0:00:19.26
3	Carlos Wilson	0:00:27.45
4	Jake Shirley	0:00:38.98
5	Ben Karalus	0:00:58.10

Junior women
#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Sophie Tyas	0:05:58.59
2	Phoebe Coers	0:01:21.47

Senior men
#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Jake Boylett	0:04:56.91
2	Kieran Thompson	0:00:04.10
3	Ben Tyas	0:00:05.02
4	Nick McConachie	0:00:07.02
5	Mike Langford	0:00:07.51
6	Carl Edmondson	0:00:12.70
7	Mat Prior	0:00:14.23
8	Tom Humphries	0:00:17.06
9	Scott McGregor	0:00:17.47
10	Corey Russ	0:00:21.75
11	Warrick Trompetter	0:00:22.09
12	Daryl Webb	0:00:34.33
13	Cole Titchmarsh	0:00:36.13
14	Jonas Meier	0:00:41.78
15	Leighton Kirk	0:00:46.01
16	Adam McClintock	0:00:51.74
17	Alan Newton	0:01:00.27
18	Florian de Vries	0:01:03.68
19	Thilo Rucknagel	0:01:19.39
20	Robert Chappell	0:01:34.43
21	Colin Tocher	0:01:42.23
22	Russell Archer	0:01:45.12
23	George Murray	0:02:00.03
24	Chris De Casare	0:03:31.30
25	Ferris Fairbairn	0:03:43.26
26	James Hampton	0:04:48.04
27	Matt Clarke	0:05:14.25
28	Andrew Bias	0:05:56.20
29	Tyler Brooker	0:06:09.76
DNS	Vincent Enstroem
DNS	Matt Burns
DNS	Matthew Plowman
DNS	Scott Taylor
DNS	Jon Stout
DNS	Michael McCullum

Senior women
#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Tania Carson	0:06:20.04
2	Amanda Pearce	0:00:01.42
3	Kaytee Campbell	0:00:34.52
4	Jo Perrott	0:01:10.71
5	Pippa Holdom	0:01:56.32
6	Carolin Friese	0:01:56.54

Master 1 men
#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Hayden McKay	0:05:01.15
2	Derek Winwood	0:00:00.15
3	Boyd Grinstead	0:00:07.49
4	Chris Mancey	0:00:15.19
5	Andrew Martin	0:00:22.55
6	Ricky Pincott	0:00:25.11
7	Jamie Nicoll	0:00:37.91
8	Marcos Barbosa	0:01:30.19
9	Tony Boroviec	0:01:32.45
10	Kevin English	0:03:39.81
11	Sven Martin	0:05:31.96
	DNS Teruaki Takahashi

Master 2 men
#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Darryn Henderson	0:05:25.75
2	Mark Stirling	0:00:17.22
3	Karl Merriman	0:00:28.20
4	John Baddiley	0:00:36.29
5	Sean Cox	0:01:03.28
6	Nick Dalton	0:01:20.46
7	John Boylett	0:01:21.60