The 8th of March marked the start of a new season of competition. Round 1 of the 2009 National BikeTrial Championship was held at the rock climbing area of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, just off Dairy Farm Road. Similar to the last round of 2008, the competition consisted of 5 sections. Each rider had to complete 3 laps instead of the usual 2, to make up for the smaller amount of sections.
It has been a few years since a National BikeTrial Championship round was held at Bukit Timah, the last time being in 2006. Thus, many of the younger riders were not sure just what to expect. The first lap started out pretty slow with a number of riders having difficulties even completing the sections. But by the second lap everyone was more or less warmed up.
Charissa Lee.
Round 1 was a first for the 3 riders in the Open category, but even with the lack of competition experience, they all rode their best.
Ben Leow also known as Ben Good (inside joke! haha).
Glene Kan.
Jack Hii.
Eventually it was Jack Hii, from Malaysia, who won the Open category! Glene Kan came in 2nd, and Ben Leow in 3rd!
Syarul
In the J.Senior category we had a number of new riders who were promoted from last year. It would be a real challenge for them as the sections were more difficult and technical than in the Open category. Indeed it was a huge difference as they had difficulties completing some sections. However, they still tried their best and were all smiles no matter how tough it was, which was great to see.
Soon Zhao Hui.
Joel Lim. Back in business after a number of years!
Andrea Lim. The only rider to make this drop and boy was it smooth.
Andrea Lim emerged as the champion in this round! Followed by Joel Lim taking 2nd place, and Soon Zhao Hui in 3rd!
Charissa Lee was the lone rider in the Femina category, however, her line was set more or less similar to the J.Senior line, and boy was she on fire.
She rode her best and did not lose concentration even when things got pretty sketchy. She ended the competition with a total number of points less than that of Andre, the J.Senior champion! It just proved why she came 3rd in the World Championships back in 2006.
Last but not least, the Elite category. We had a few new riders this time round after being promoted last year. They are: Matthew Tan, Nigel Chen and See Yong Kiong.
Yong Kiong.
Nigel Chen.
Things were interesting in Section 4, there was the case of some ”dancing” in the section. Basically Yong Kiong had thought of a way to take a dab, twist the bike, and then hop onto the other foot to maneuver through a tight sections of rocks. It looked really hilarious but it worked really well! Both Walton and Ben Loh followed and ”danced” their way through the section.
Heres’ how the dance looked like from the bottom.
At the end of the day it was Ben Loh who took the top spot, with Walton Seah in 2nd and Matthew Tan in 3rd!
Matthew Tan. On board the new Rockman Aurem.
Walton Seah.
Ben Loh.
All in all, it was a nice and short competition, the weather held up and everyone had a great time.
Last but not least, a big thanks goes out to the boys who helped build the sections in the wet, to the observers and time keepers, you know who you are! See you at the next round!
All photos courtesy of Benjamin Teo/OhCheese
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