championship-winning event close to 25 years ago , actually just one day ( yes , just 24 hours ) before his 26th birthday , is most certainly half a lifetime ago for him . King , along with his brothers Darryll and Damien , were the pioneers , the pathfinders for Kiwi talent wanting to head to Europe , a place that was then , and still is , the cauldron of the sport ’ s ultimate competition , the FIM senior motocross world championships . New Zealand riders such as Ivan Miller , Craig Coleman , Bryan Patterson , Greg Brinck Gary Goodfellow , Chris Maindonald , Hugh Anderson and ( honorary Kiwis ) Steve and Paul Harrison ( ex UK ) and Tim Gibbes ( ex Australia ) had tested the European scene before the King siblings and there were also those who followed , of course , riders such as Daryl Atkins , Cam Negus , Danny Marshall , Corrie Sargent , Josh Coppins , Ben Townley and Scott Columb and , in more recent times , James Scott , Josiah Natzke and Dylan Walsh , for example , but only a couple were ever able to truly crack the big time and bring home the main prize . Townley was the only other Kiwi rider besides Shayne King to claim a key motocross world championship , winning the MX2 crown in 2004 , while Coppins came extraordinarily close in 2007 to winning the MX1 title only to be frustratingly denied by freakish bad luck .
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