Anak Malaysia: April 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011

At the Start of the Down Hill event Putrajaya Challenge 2011

Datuk Naim Mohamad flagging off participant No,6 Mr Irvin Tan Eng Soon at the PCP Down Hill Putrajaya Challenge 2011.

Daniel Sprague the Down Hill Champion at Putrajaya Challenge 2011

AUSTRALIAN DANIEL SPRAGUE IS THE PUTRAJAYA CHALLENGE DOWNHILL CHAMPION!

Putrajaya – After a long hard day or racing, Australian Daniel Sprague of Sonik Racer clocked in the fastest time of 01m 07.420s, making him the winner of the downhill Elite men Category beating Singaporean Tan Hong Chun who was in Second place (01m08.270s) and Adam Ahmed of Malaysia in third place (01m:08.500s).

The 2010 Australian Elite Masters Division BMX Champion was ecstatic when interviewed after the prize-giving ceremony, “I was great to win here, everything came together, the run was pretty smooth and I was quite fast in the sections that I wanted to be so in the end there was a lot of quick guys today and I was just happy to be able to be the fastest.”

With already two wins this year including the recent Red Bull Dark Knights 2011 race in Singapore, Daniel is enjoying his winning streak and hoping that it will continue. “I’ve done a few events, I pick the races that I wanna do, this year I’ve done 3 races, I did the Red Bull Dark knights 2011 race in Singapore and I won that one and had done one in Western Australia - BMX Championships and I had a win there so it’s really good and now I’m backed up with the Putrajaya Challenge, So everything is going really well I’ve won three out of three and I’ve got a couple of races in a couple of weeks in Western Australia, I hope I will do well there. I hope to be back in Malaysia in July and some races in the end of the year back in Australia, I’m hoping that I can keep this going.’

“My winning streak’s been going really well, it’s about time that’s I’ve put together a winning streak again, I’m happy to keep it going if I can.” He added.

Besides that, the inaugural Downhill Champion of Putrajaya Challenge was really impressed with the organisation of the event, “It was an excellent event, really well organized, really good track, they’re trying to get UCI status with this track so it’s a fantastic job that they did.“

With more than 157 riders, including a large number of overseas competitors from around the region competing in seven different categories today. In the finals, there was no stopping the 35-year-old Perth native as he completely out-run his class on the competition with the fastest time and clinching the first ever Putrajaya Challenge Downhill Elite Men title.

The prize-giving was presented by Datuk Naim Mohamad, the deputy president of the Malaysia National Cycling Federation (MNCF) and Mr Maniam Manikkam, vice president of the Malaysia National Cycling Federation (MNCF). The prizes were given out to the top 3 winners of the Downhill events consisting of categories which are Men's Elite, Men's Expert, Women's Sport (10-29 years), Men's Junior (under 18 years), Men's Master A (30-39 years), Men's Master B (40 years old above) and Men's Hard Tail.

On Sunday we will see the Cross Country (XC) events taking place involving the category of Men's Elite, Women's Elite, Men's Open (15-20 years), Junior Veteran (30-39 years) and Veteran (40 years and over).

Putrajaya Challenge 2011 is jointly organized by the Putrajaya Cycling Association and Bat’s Creative Sdn Bhd, all the Downhill and Cross Country events are conducted in accordance with the International Cycling Union (UCI) regulations.