Friday 7 February 2020
The Weekend Sun
16
No mountain high enough
Shania Rawson. Photo: Cam Mackenzie.
Roaring down a mountain bike track, evading rocks and tree roots with split-second timing is certainly not for the faint hearted.
No one would ever accuse Shania Rawson of that. She has been riding bikes competitively since she was four years old and has a string of national and Oceania junior titles to her name. Shania was a world-ranked BMX rider before she switched to mountain biking six years ago. She won eight national BMX titles and was ranked sixth in the world. Her brother Kurt Pickard, who represented New Zealand at the 2012 London Olympics in BMX and is now a world-renowned coach, and her parents, have been
major influences But around this time last year Shania decided she needed to step back from the huge physical and mental challenges of competing at top level mountain biking. She decided to have a break from competing for 12 months to refresh her love for the sport and reset her goals. Now 20 and in the elite age group for the first time, she entered last month’s Oceania and NZ National champs held in Otago as preparation for Crankworx Rotorua in March. But she surprised herself by finishing second in the Oceania downhill event before backing up the next day to win gold and her first elite New Zealand title The secret to her success was just to go out and have fun without any pressure. “I have been racing competitively since I was four so I wanted some time out. Downhill is such a mental sport and you need a lot of skills and need to be able to focus,” she says.
“I hadn’t ridden my downhill bike in almost a year so I didn’t have any intentions to win. “I just wanted to ride my bike again and get some training in for Crankworx where you have five different races in a week. I had been taking races too seriously so I tried just to have fun on my bike. “I am pretty stoked to come out with the win.” Shania has moved from Papamoa to Rotorua to be closer to the world class downhill training facilities there. She has twice been on the podium at Crankworx at junior level and would dearly love to be up there again. “I would love to get more podiums at Crankworx Rotorua this year and hopefully save enough money to go race the other Crankworx in Canada and Europe. “I love the atmosphere in Rotorua because you get people from all over the world and you also get kids coming along and competing. “It is a special event.”