Today we have two-time women’s motocross world champion Courtney Duncan chatting to BikesportNZ.com about her pandemic-affected 2020 season in Europe and about her return to defend her title in 2021.
The just-turned 25-year-old from Otago, near Dunedin in the South Island, knows she has a target on her back, but acknowledges that she probably always has and it will just be business as usual for her when she returns to Europe to begin her world championship title defence on her Kawasaki KX250F, supported by the Steve Dixon-managed British-based Bike It DRT Kawasaki Racing Team.
“I’d dreamt of winning a world championship since I was a kid; I worked 15 years of my life for moments like this,” she’d said after finally securing the 2020 crown at Pietramurata, in northern Italy, in November.
Otago’s Courtney Duncan (Kawasaki), one of the fastest riders on the freshly-upgraded Barrett Road Motorcycle Park facility near New Plymouth at the weekend. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
“The 2020 year has been so full of uncertainties with the COVID-19 (pandemic) and our own challenges, like the crash in Mantova (in Italy).
“When I got back to my bike and the handlebars were snapped, it felt as though the championship was gone in the blink-of-an-eye and I’m so proud with how we fought back, stayed positive and confident to come out on top for a second (consecutive) year.”
There will no doubt be fresh challenges ahead of her in 2021, but it’s certain she has the pace and the resilience and the strength and the tenacity to make it three world titles in a row.
She just needs luck to stay on her side.
© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ
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WMX – 2020 Championship Top 10 Final Classification:
- Courtney Duncan (NZL, KAW), 207 points; 2. Nancy Van De Ven (NED, YAM), 207 p.; 3. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, YAM), 200 p.; 4. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, KTM), 193 p.; 5. Lynn Valk (NED, YAM), 164 p.; 6. Shana van der Vlist (NED, KTM), 135 p.; 7. Sara Andersen (DEN, KTM), 121 p.; 8. Line Dam (DEN, YAM), 114 p.; 9. Anne Borchers (GER, SUZ), 94 p.; 10. Tahlia Jade O’Hare (AUS, KTM), 91 p.