Duncan in tight fourway contest for world championship

IT is all on the line for Courtney Duncan at the final round of the women’s motocross world championship series this weekend.

The Palmerston rider is one of four competitors in contention for the overall title at the French GP, at VillarssousEcot.

She lies second, trailing Dutch rival Nancy Van de Ven by two points and is in front of France’s Livia Lancelot by one and Italy’s Kiara Fontanesi by two.

She will race twice tomorrow, early in the morning and again at 7.45pm (New Zealand time).

In local time, she will race once on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday morning.

Duncan had led the competition through the first four rounds, having won the first one and the fourth.

However, a tough outing at last weekend’s penultimate round in the Netherlands resulted in her slumping to two fourth placings and she dropped from the top spot.

Duncan had been struggling with a knee injury, although her coach Josh Coppins had said that was not an excuse.

Having had her promising rookie season cut short last year, after a unlucky crash, she is aiming for her first title.

Lancelot went on to win last year’s title, her second. She had also won in 2008.

Fontanesi had won the world title for the previous four years, 201215.