LIAM DRAPER of the six races thus far run, with six more races to go( two at each remaining round) before the championship wraps up in Italy in September. Duncan is ideally placed to clinch the world title that she was so cruelly denied in 2016 and again last year. She won the first of her two races in Germany by a solid 6.9 seconds over Italian Yamaha ace Kiara Fontanesi, the defending world champion, and then beat Fontanesi to the chequered flag by a massive 15.3 seconds in race two the following day. This boosted Duncan’ s advantage from three to 15 points over her nearest challenger for the title, German Suzuki rider Larissa Papenmeier. Papenmeier finished fourth and then third in the two races in Germany. The next WMX round is at Ottobiano, in Italy, on June 17. It was perhaps also fitting that, as Duncan was racing in Germany, she was being honoured by the sport’ s governing body at home, Motorcycling New Zealand, her grand-parents on hand to accept on her behalf her award as 2017 Female Rider of the Year at the organisation’ s annual awards ceremony in Queenstown. Meanwhile, a lot closer to home, Mangakino’ s

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