DIRT NEWS
Bay of Plenty's Cody Cooper, pictured here competing at the MXoN in England in 2017,
a rider who has represented New Zealand at this event on 10 separate occasions
KIWIS WILL SKIP THE ‘OLYMPIC
GAMES OF MOTOCROSS’
T
his season’s “Olympic Games of Motocross”
is still tipped to be raced, in England this
September, but on this occasion it will go
ahead without a team from New Zealand.
The annual Motocross of Nations (MXoN
race weekend is the latest in a growing list of
international sporting events affected by the
Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, with many
countries accepting the health risks and
logistical difficulties of competing are still
too great, New Zealand the latest nation to
reveal it won’t be sending representation to
the MXoN in 2020.
Large parts of Europe are still in the grip of
the pandemic and, despite the motocross
world championships being rescheduled to
resume again in August, the complications of
arranging international flights for the riders
and their equipment and bikes to, and then
back from, the other side of the world for this
stand-alone event were deemed just too massive.
Motorcycling New Zealand (MNZ) motocross
commissioner Ray Broad said it made sense not
to send our three-rider squad, plus mechanics
and manager, to this year’s rescheduled event at
Matterley Basin, near Winchester in the United
Kingdom, on the weekend of September 26-27.
“The health and well-being of our people was
the most important consideration,” he said.
New Zealand is one of the very few countries
104 KIWI RIDER