The BikesportNZ.com crew witnessed an amazing display of sportsmanship at the recent MX Fest in Taupo and simply couldn’t let it pass without a mention.
Action Suzuki rider Quade Young, from Raglan, was racing in the MX1 class on Sunday when he caught up to a fallen rider in front of him – Te Puke’s Tyler Steiner – sprawled out on the sand, his bike on top of him and crushing him into the ground.
Instead of just weaving past his fallen rival, as most other riders did, Young stopped, dropped his own bike and ran to help, lifting Steiner’s bike from on top of him.
Young gave up his chance of scoring valuable points and, we noted, Steiner soon afterwards caught up to Young and passed him, further relegating our hero down the rankings.
For the record, Mount Maunganui’s Cody Cooper and West Auckland’s Hamish Harwood shared first-equal overall in the MX1 class on Sunday, Steiner finished 15th overall and Young was placed 20th overall.
We calculated that if Young had scored just two more points in that race, he would have finished his weekend two positions better overall, in 18th place.
His sporting gesture cost him a lot of track time and cost him valuable points too, but perhaps you really can’t put a price on sportsmanship and earning the admiration of the motorcycling community (we assume others noticed this act of kindness).
So there we have it, out Sportsman of the Month for October – Quade Young. Take a bow Quade.
© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
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