 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
"For the second time ever, a Women's Motocross Event was held in Sweden. It was held in Avesta, Sweden at the RM - Country Championship. The winner, Johanna Mattsson from SMK Kristianstad, took home the number one plate" With only 12 entries, less than at the first competition in Borås two years ago, the women motocross racers mounted their machines and looked at this as a new start, with the hope of more participants in the years to come. Encouraging enough, some girls arrived who were not motocross competitors (enduro normally), as they wanted to support the sport. The girls competed in 2 heats of 15 minutes + 2 laps over the very sandy and heavy Folkare-track. The girls did not complain though. On the contrary, they were excited for the challenge as they showed fighting spirit in the sand. Johanna Mattsson took the lead in moto one. Young Elin Mann was in hot pursuit. As expected, the fight was between the two of them. In the end, Mattsson was clearly the best in the sand and Mann had to give up her trials to hang on. There was nothing to do about Mattsson in moto one as she pulled away from the group. "There is one more moto" said Mann. "I am going to ride more aggressively in the second moto". Marie Karlsson, who won in Borås 1998, has not competed for more than one year. In the mean time, she has became a mother. Karlsson recently got excited about the recent surge in women's competition and started practicing. Karlsson finished an impressive 3rd place, quite a distance after Mann but far ahead of the rest. Enduro-girl, Erika Roth, was 4th for most of moto one. In the end, Jessica Jönsson, strongly fought and passed Roth. After a crash, Sandra Axell had to accept 6th position. In the second moto, it was Karlsson taking a successful outer-swing and the lead in front of Mattsson and Mann. The three in the lead were very close to each other. It wasn't long, however, until Mattsson took command in front of Mann and Karlsson. Karlsson again had to accept a larger and larger gap. Mann did her best to push Mattsson through the long straights as this was where she was strongest. Mattsson, however, had better times and managed to increase the lead. Finally, Mann had no more power and let a gap between Mattsson and herself spread. Mattsson went on to take a double victory, the #1 trophy and a great satisfaction. "I am very happy for my victory and for the exposure women's motocross has gotten. Everything went well today even if it was extremely hard and I got very tired. It gives me more motivation for the future as I am looking forward to competing in America in May of 2001 during the WML International Championships at the Hangtown AMA-WML Outdoor Nationals in California" said Mattsson.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
