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She ’ s done it again and , in the end , she did it easily … New Zealand ’ s Courtney Duncan is world champion once more .
Duncan is New Zealand ’ s most successful motocross rider by far . The 27-year-old Kawasaki rider from Palmerston , near Dunedin , won the first of her two Women ’ s Motocross World Championship ( WMX ) races at the final round in Turkey on Saturday , September 2 , and with that stretched her points lead to such a margin that she had almost an entire race up her sleeve , with just the final race in the series remaining the following day . Duncan finished runner-up in that vital final race on the Sunday , behind Dutch rider Lynn Valk , and therefore comfortably added the 2023 world crown to her previous world championship titles , won three years consecutively in 2019 , 2020 and 2021 .
“ Honestly I was not too stressed today ; I knew what I needed to do , and I know how to ride mud ,’’ Duncan said . “ Anything can happen in these conditions , but I got a good start and just stayed upright . The conditions were difficult and slippery , but it was the same for everyone and I ran it home in second ; that was enough for the overall victory and the championship .” Duncan said it had been “ a really good season with four GP wins , and we were really consistent ”. “ For sure it ’ s a challenge when there are such long breaks between some races after you have started to build momentum , but we kept our focus . “ I feel like we definitely stepped it up this year
KIWI RIDER 27