Otago’s Courtney Duncan will be firing on all cylinders when she begins her 2023 Women’s Motocross World Championships campaign in Italy next month.
Injury derailed her 2022 title bid and ruined her attempt to make it four would title wins in succession, but the now 27-year-old is determined to claim world title No.4 in 2023.
She broke her collarbone during a practice session at the second round of the 2022 world championships in Portugal. An X-ray at the track showed a broken collarbone and FIM protocol forced her to withdraw from the weekend.
Duncan returned for last season’s final two rounds, winning three races and finishing second in the other one. But the four races she missed while injured in the 10-race season meant she finished an unaccustomed seventh overall.
So, instead of the No.1, she will return to the race tracks of Europe this year with the No.151 emblazoned on her distinctive green Kawasaki bike.
“I’ve now had the metal plate removed from my collarbone and I have recovered from that. I’m back training and that’s going really well,” Duncan said.
“The off-season is so long, so it was nice to finish the season on a high. It was bittersweet not being able to do the whole season and missing on winning another title.
“I’m back overseas in March and will stay there for the first four rounds [Italy, Switzerland, Spain and France from March to May], then come back and go back for the last two [Netherlands and Turkey in August-September].
“I’m building up slowly since having my plate taken out [and] will be at full fitness by March. ”
Her build-up started in October when she contested the New Zealand Veterans and Women’s Motocross Championships and it came as no surprise when she comfortably won the senior women’s grade at that event near Cambridge.
Her Kawasaki race team, Dixon Racing, is the same outfit she’s raced for with such success over the past five years.
She said that not having to develop a new bike and test assorted components was a real bonus for her.
“Everything is pretty much the same with the machinery, same bike, same engine and same parts.
“Most of the tracks in Europe are the same as before, and this year, we have a round in France, which is really exciting, as I haven’t been there for a while, so I’m really looking forward to that one.
“The numbers of women in this sport is growing and you can’t come through the field as easily and quickly as you could in the past. There’s much more talent at each race now.”
With triple champion Duncan being unable to defend her world title in 2022, it was Nancy Van De Ven who prevailed, the Dutch rider finally becoming the world champion after finishing runner-up for the previous four years in a row.
The fight for the silver and bronze medals was very close, but, in the end, Dutch rider Lynn Valk secured second, while Germany’s Larissa Papenmeier took third overall for 2022.
It is likely to be these same women who will challenge Duncan this year.
Duncan actually won more motos (three of the 10) in the 2022 season than eventual champion Van De Ven did, but her two zero-scores from rounds two and three (Portugal and Sardinia) were impossible for the Kiwi to claw her way back from.
© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ
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