A fortnight can be a long time in the sporting world and Canterbury’s Angus Macdonald certainly proved that on Saturday.

Two weeks ago the 19-year-old from Christchurch was indulging in his passion for creating videos, filming his bother Hamish who was making his debut at the opening round of the motocross nationals at Timaru.

Hamish Macdonald performed brilliantly that day, the motocross “rookie” qualifying second fastest in the 125cc class and then ending the day fifth overall.

But, just 13 days later and it was Angus Macdonald who was the man in the spotlight as he avoided a drowning to win the opening round of the New Zealand Enduro Championships, south of Nelson, on Saturday, while his equally-talented sibling Hamish had to settle for an unaccustomed 24th overall for the day.

Runner-up to Angus Macdonald on Saturday was defending national enduro champion Brad Groombridge, the 26-year-old Taupo man commenting that he “had a tough day” and was simply happy to “at least finish among the top three and score some good points”.

As for Angus Macdonald, he was thrilled with how his day turned out.

“The track was in mint condition, although it was a very technical course and I had a few problems early on.

“I nearly drowned my bike in the first timed test of the day when I mistakenly picked a deep part of the river to cross. The water was up to the seat.

“I just had to tell myself to calm down after that and ride smoothly. I didn’t make any more mistakes after that.

“I have not had much time on the new bike either. It only arrived from Australia last week and so I’d really only had a couple of rides on it before Saturday’s event.”

Third overall, on Saturday was Helensville’s Tom Buxton, with Titirangi’s Callan May fourth. Rotorua’s Bradley Lauder was fifth and Mokau’s former national enduro champion and multi-time former national cross-country champion Adrian Smith rounded out the top six.

The national series now travels north for round two near Whangamata next weekend, on February 25.

Round three is set for the Moonshine Valley, north of Wellington, on March 18, followed by round four near Christchurch on May 6 and then Waitawhiti Station, east of Eketahuna, on June 3. Finally, it all wraps up near Tokoroa just two days later, on June 5.

© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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