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Emmanuel Bako

Collin Matiza Sports Editor
AFTER Tanya Muzinda clinched the ZIWA Sportswoman of the Year Award in England last weekend, the local motocross family is set to pop the champagne bottles again for the second week in a row as another young Zimbabwean rider — Emmanuel Bako — is on the verge of claiming the 2015 Monster Energy South African National Championship’s 50cc Pro title.

Bako, an eight-year-old Grade Three pupil at Heritage School in Harare, just needs a podium finish in the penultimate round of the seven-round 2015 South African National Championship series at Teza in KwaZulu Natal today to grab the 50cc Pro title.

This will see the young and talented motocross rider bringing the same title back to Zimbabwe for the second year on the trot after it was won last year by his fellow Zimbabwean Daiyaan Manuel, who has since graduated to race in the 65cc Class.

Bako has been in dominant form this year and is currently sitting pretty at the top of the 2015 South African National Championship series’ 50cc Pro standings with 211 points, 15 ahead of his nearest rival Wian du Plooy of South Africa.

And with only two rounds left in the series, Bako just needs to come in the top three in today’s race meeting at Teza to be crowned champion and this will be a phenomenal achievement for the young Zimbabwean who took up the sport only two years ago when he was six years old.

It’s no secret that all eyes will be on Bako at Teza today as he takes to the track in the 50cc Pro Class in which he will once again come up against his South African rivals du Plooy, James Thompson, Luke Grundy and Willem Hough. When these riders met the last time out in the fifth round of the on-going South African National Championship series at Dirt Bronco in Krugersdop, the 50cc track didn’t dry out like the main track and was like “World War 3” on the first few laps of heat 1.

Many riders fell in the mud and puddles, but the name which was heard over the loud speaker was Thompson.

The hometown rider got to the front and didn’t look back. The ever improving du Plooy was second with Zimbabwe’s Bako in third place.

The winner of the last national, Grundy, had a good start, but some bad line choices in the heat, put him in fourth.

In heat 2, Bako took the win and emerged as the overall winner of this class on that day. He was fastest in practice and despite a mid-season hiccup, is well in the championship and could be crowned the champion today with one more round to spare in the series.

This will put the icing on the cake for the local motocross family who have just been celebrating Tanya Muzinda’s crowning as the 2015 Zimbabwe International Women’s Awards’ Sportswoman of the Year.

Muzinda (11) won the award at a colourful ceremony held in Birmingham, England, last Saturday night, staving off the challenges of middle and long-distance runners Sharon Tavengwa and Rutendo Nyahora, golfers Yolander Mubaiwa and Teurai Chanakira.

The nominees were announced in August with the online voting process starting soon after. Voting closed on September 20.

And Muzinda got the award after picking up more votes than the other four nominees.

Muzinda returned home from England yesterday afternoon accompanied by her father and trainer Tawanda and mother Adiyon.