Eight weeks of training paid off for local BMX riders Georgie and Chad Buckman when they competed at the NSW BMX Championships at Lake Macquarie over the long weekend.
Both recorded improved track times with Georgie holding on to the No 7 state number plate she earned this time last year while Chad made it through to the quarter finals in his 11 years age group.
The event capped off the 2015 BMX season for the Buckman siblings which has seen them travel over 15,000km competing in the NSW State Series, Club Open events and ACT State Championships.
The duo has spent the last eight weeks training hard for the championships – even travelling to Lake Macquarie two weeks ago to race a club event only for it to be washed out.
The training helped with both Georgie and Chad improving their lap time by over 1.5sec each from the last time they rode the Lake Macquarie track in June at the pre-titles event.
Georgie was looking to hold onto a state number plate – 7N (finalists in a given final have the right to use numbers 1 to 8 for the following season depending on the finishing position in the final) which she won at last year’s championships.
With 12 riders in her 12 years age class, Georgie had to rank 8th or better after her three motos (heats) to qualify for the final.
After finishing with a third and two 4ths, Georgie qualified in 7th place for the final.
She gave it her best in the final recording her quickest lap and start reaction time of the day.
Starting from lane 7 in the final, Georgie had settled into 7th position after the first corner.
She held off the pressure from behind but couldn’t quite get close enough to the rider in 6th position to make a pass.
Georgie finished 7th to retain the ‘7N’ plate that she won last year.
Chad was competing with the 11yrs boys which was the largest group with 49 riders.
He qualified through to the quarter final after finishing 3rd, 5th and 4th in his three motos.
Starting from lane 6 in the quarter final, Chad had to finish in the top four to advance to the semi-finals.
He fought hard in the first and second corner to move into 5th place but going into the third corner he got pushed high and dropped back to 6th spot.
Chad went across the finish line in 8th position after easing off going down the final straight knowing he would miss a top four spot that would enable him to progress to semis.
After being ranked 11th in the State Series, he finished the day in 17th place overall from the field of 55 riders that competed this season.
