Van Pee, Omar inspire Uganda to victory

By Johnson Were

• Scroll to bottom for results

ALI Omar Yasser and Maxime Van Pee in the 85cc and MX1 category respectively lived to their promise as they won the FIM Africa Central Africa Motocross Championship on the wet muddy track in Busiika on Easter Sunday lifting Uganda’s flag high.

It was a thrilling show for the fans who endured the day’s rains but cheered on Omar who was battling Kenya’s top riders Elias Sherman and Rolf Kihara to successfully beat them in all the three heats.

His teammate Alistair Blick endured a tough day after falling in the muddy section thrice in the first two heats and then suffering a puncture to his rear tyre in the final heat.

“When I realized that Alistair was struggling I pushed my bike to the limit because I could not afford to lose at home,” Omar stated.

“In the last heat I risked to overtake Elias in the sharp corner to the finishing point because he had blocked me several times and I used that advantage because it was the chance I got to deny them (Kenyans) any joy,” the soft spoken rider stressed.

The young star took a wide angle powering his KTM 2014 model bike to the limit while approaching a sharp corner amidst wild cheering from the mammoth crowd to overtake Elias by surprise seconds to the finish line.

In the MX1 category a wrong gear in the air and hard landing nearly cost Maxime Van Pee the crown as he crashed his bike in the third heat but persevered and finished fourth to collect 53 points beating Kenya’s Tutu Maina (52pts) by a single point.

“I entered a wrong gear and landed badly, but it’s good I didn’t get injured and I will be there for team Uganda in Kenya in the second round,” Maxime stated.

Meanwhile in the absence of Fortune Ssentamu and Imran Nkrunziza in the 65cc and 50cc categories respectively gave the Kenyans the opportunity to dominate the two classes plus the MX125 category.

Ssentamu and Nkrunziza fractured the leg and arm respectively during training and missed out on the first round of the event.

Results

Veterans’ category

Jesse Karmstra 60 (UG)

Dave Cliff 49 (UG)

Jack Schrier 42 UG

Patrick Van Pee 41 UG

Major Kiggundu 30 (UG)

MX1 category

Maxime Van Pee 53 (UG)

Tutu Maina 52 (KY)

Arthur Blick Jnr 47 (UG)

MX2 category

Apollo Mbuki 60 (KY)

Fatuh Kiggundu 47 (UG)

Charles Kingangi 45 (KY)

MX125 category

Ngungu Waweru 57 (KY)

Samir Anwar 54 (KY)

Walter Kuria 45 (KY)

85cc category

Ali Omar 60 (UG)

Elias Sherman 57 (KY)

Rolf Kihara 34 (KY)

John Schrier 34 (UG)

Wazir Omar 29 (UG)

65cc category

Kigen Kiplagat 54 (KY)

Joshua Mwangala 46 (UG)

Ben Nsumba 46 (UG)

Vince Schrier 41 (UG)

Waleed Omar 36 (UG)

50cc category

Jet Takkunen 60 (KY)

Jaiden Takkunen 41 (KY)

Habibu Kiggundu 41 (UG)

Esther Mwangala 38 (UG)

Isabella Blick 36 (UG)