Bako, Manuel face-off at Donnybrook
TWO of the country’s exciting and talented junior motocross riders Emmanuel Bako and Daiyaan Manuel will resume their rivalry when they clash in the fourth round of the 2017 Bogwheelers Club national championship series at Donnybrook in Harare on Sunday.
Bako, a Grade Six pupil at Mai Grace Mugabe Junior School in Mazowe, recently celebrated his 11th birthday.
He and Manuel (12) compete in both the 65cc and 85cc classes.
The riders will compete in the Peewees (for bikers under the age of seven), 50cc, 65cc A and B, 85cc, 125cc, MX1, MX2, Veterans and Masters classes during the oneday event.
Manuel goes into Sunday’s event as the firm favourite to take the first step on the podium in both the 65cc and 85cc classes as he has been in scintillating form this season.
He has produced some eye-catching performances here in Zimbabwe and in South Africa where he is also competing in that country’s National Championship Series.
Manuel, a Grade Seven pupil at St. John’s Preparatory School in Harare, will use Sunday’s event to fine-tune himself for next weekend’s seventh and final round of the 2017 South African National Championship Series which will be held at Terra Topia in the Diepsloot area of the Gauteng Province.
Manuel is sitting pretty at the top of the South African Nationals’ 65cc Class Standings with 267 points, 10 ahead of his nearest rival Tyler Tarantino of South Africa while another top junior South African biker Troy Muraour is in third place with 244 points.
And the Zimbabwean rider just needs a place on the podium at the end of business on October 14 to be crowned the 2017 South African Nationals’ 65cc Champion.
This will see Manuel becoming the first junior rider from Zimbabwe to win two different South African national titles as he claimed his first title Down South in 2014 when he was crowned the overall winner of the 50cc Class.
Manuel first has to take care of business in both the 65cc and 85cc classes during this Sunday’s fourth round of the Bogwheelers Club National Championship Series at Donnybrook in Harare.
He will first compete in the 65cc Class where he is expected to fight for the first step on the podium with his main rival Bako, Big “BJ” Chitima (Jnr), Jordan Dewdney, Lee Chigumba, Tristan Versfeld and Dillan Faasen.
In the 85cc Class, Manuel will also come up against Bako and other top junior riders such as Tristan Grainger, Kuda Mhene (Jnr), Reagan Bond and Ricky Whyte.
Some exciting bar-to-bar racing is expected in this class.
The country’s top female rider Tanya Muzinda, who competes with boys in the 85cc Class, will, however, miss this Sunday’s event at Donnybrook as she is currently away in England where she won a bronze medal in the same class during last month’s British Girls National Championships at Wroxton in Oxford.