Atkin remains unbeaten

The 2012 Oceania Mountain Bike Championships finished Sunday with the downhill and cross country eliminator races in the Whakarewarewa Forest in Rotorua. Weather was very changeable, with just enough rain falling on and off all day to keep competitors guessing and gambling with the variable conditions. Competition was tough, and the strong international presence was felt again today in both feature races.

The largest field of entrants this 2012 summer took on the Whaka downhill course for the afternoon race. Seeding showed that the Australian challenge was going to be the strongest in the junior U19 men's race, and that is exactly the way the race panned out. Local hopes rested with Louis Hamilton and Jake Robinson, who know this hill and the course itself intimately, however they were beaten by an ecstatic Brent Smith (Australia) albeit by the slimmest of margins. Smith knew he had raced clean and fast from his fifth seed position, and his time held right through for his first Oceania Championship title.

In the elite women's race, Sarah Atkin (New Zealand) added the Oceania title to her stellar 2012 achievements, ahead of a disappointed Gabby Molloy (New Zealand) who lost just enough time with a mid course crash to prevent her challenge taking her to the win.

The elite men's race was a cracker. New Zealand's Brook MacDonald was a late entry to the race, after confirming late flights to the first UCI World Cup in South Africa for Monday. 2009 Junior World Champion MacDonald held a massive advantage with the quickest seeding time, but couldn't improve on that time during his race, while four other athletes did. Matt Walker (New Zealand) set the benchmark time from a deep seed position, and Wyn Masters (New Zealand) locked in his best result of this summer with a third. Only New Zealand's Matt Scoles had the pace to better Walker's time. Scoles, who raced a quality season in Europe last year that saw him finishing in top ten positions during late season World Cups, and winning everything he raced at the next tier of competition in Italy has been on a steady upward rise in this sport since working his way back from injury after his 2007 Junior World Championship bronze medal. The Oceanias Championship title this year represents a real coming of age for the Alexandra builder, his first major title win in this sport in New Zealand at an elite level.

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