WINDHOEK, 4 Nov – The finals of the FNB Schools Mountain Bike League took place on Saturday, 30 October 2021 at the IJG Trails. The event was the fifth race of the season, which started in March but saw the last races postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
135 enthusiastic riders took to the start line, representing 13 different high schools and 22 primary schools. Over the course of the league, riders from Gobabis, Stampriet, Swakopmund, and Windhoek have taken part, with the earlier races in the season seeing close to 200 participants per race.
The U12 boys saw a sprint finish for second place, with Julius Braun taking the overall win, closely followed by Henry Chamberlain and Mike Baartman in third. Another hotly contested category was the U8 boys where Joshua Brand and Ivor Chase traded places through the race, with Joshua taking the win, followed by Ivor and Tristan van der Heuval in third. The Finals saw Philip von Coller take the win for the boys and Joadri de Beer the win for the girls.
Bronwen Chase, FNB’s committee member of the FNB Schools Mountain Bike League expressed her delight with the success of the League, despite the challenges of the ongoing pandemic. “We are happy with the results and congratulate our winners of last week as well as the winning schools, which are Windhoek Gymnasium, who won amongst the Primary Schools whilst the Physically Active Youth (PAY) Program took the honors in the High School category.”
She added, that FNB Namibia also handed over new mountain bikes to the PAY program in order to give younger riders at PAY the opportunity to participate in the league. “The bank also sponsored the primary school PAY participants for each race, ensuring that clothing, food and transport costs were covered for each event. We wish to thank every rider who participated and hope to see them again in the FNB Schools Mountain Bike League in 2022.”
Jerome Namaseb, Transactional Product House Head for FNB Namibia, added at the prize giving ceremony: “FNB Namibia is passionate about development in sports as it teaches children about perseverance, working hard but having fun, enjoying the outdoors and winning, or losing, graciously. As a group, we support cycling from the very youngest, via the RMB BMX programme, through the FNB Schools League, and onto elite riders in the RMB PAY cycling squad.” – NDN Staffer
