There were thrills and spills in equal measure when the National BMX Championships were held at the IJG Trails at Farm Windhoek on Saturday.
More than 100 children from all over Namibia descended onto the 'Play Pit' at the IJG Trails, a specially designed BMX track with steep ramps and sharp corners, which put their technical skills to the limit.
Most of them came through with flying colours, displaying great skills as they fearlessly flew down the ramps, but there were also some mishaps and crashes, which, fortunately, didn't result in much more than a few scratches and bruised egos.
Namibia Cycling Federation (NCF) development officer Andrew Simon said some great talent was on display.
"We are very happy that all the regions came through. There were a few slight injuries, because they are mostly used to cycling on flat roads.
"For some it was their first time on BMX bikes, but it was very exciting for them and they displayed really good techniques," he said.
"On a monthly basis we have an outreach programme that reaches the most remote areas of Namibia, and all our coaches are UCI level 1 coaches, so we are developing at all age groups, from under-9 to under-14, and we are now moving up to under-16 as well," Simon said.
"The question now is what's next for the children, so we need to raise as much funds as we can, and produce national champions who can go to the African Championships or the Olympic Games.
"We definitely have some stars in the making. They have great technique they've developed just from watchying videos and a bit of coaching. They've utilised that very well," he said.
The championships form part of an annual N$250 000 sponsorship from RMB.
NCF president Tauko Shilongo said it helped to establish a successful grassroots development programme.
"Our motto at the federation is that we are here for development, we want to develop the children, especially in the regions and the towns, and BMX racing is where you start.
"If you don't have that grassroots development on a BMX, you wont be able to excel on a MTB or a road bike and reach the level of Vera [Looser] and Alex [Miller]," he said.
"We can't thank RMB enough for their sponsorship, because the money they gave us made this possible. This trophy belongs to the children who cycle. They have made it possible, not us, but they and their respective coaches," he added.
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The NCF won four awards at the Namibia Sport Awards on Friday, including the award for the best development programme.
Vice president Axel Theissen paid tribute to all coaches and the cycling fraternity at large for their hard work.
"We've tried to decentralise the sport as much as possible because it's pretty Windhoek-centric. When I received this award last night I dedicated it to the entire cycling family, because we have divisional coaches all over Namibia.
"We've got a massive cycling family that's got one goal in mind, and that is to develop cycling," he said.
"When you see what they have done here today with these children, and when you saw how privileged we were at the sport awards, walking away with four of the awards, you realise that cycling is in a very good space.
"But we need to continue developing at grassroots level to build an enabling environment to have future stars to represent our country internationally, because effectively this is what Vera and Alex are doing very successfully - they are putting Namibia on the map," Theissen said.
