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From Collin Matiza in HAMBURG, Germany
YOUNG, promising Zimbabwean motocross rider Emmanuel Bako raced into international recognition when he emerged as the overall winner of the 50cc Class during the second round of the 2015 Monster Energy South African National Championship Series in Cape Town on Saturday.

According to reports from Zone Seven in Cape Town, there was no stopping the eight-year-old Heritage Primary School’s Grade Three pupil in the one-day event in which he put 10 top junior riders from South Africa in the shade with his explosive riding skills on the track in this exciting motorcycling event.

For his young age, Bako showed some nerves of steel when he survived a crash in the first of the two heats to claim the first step on the podium in the 50cc Class in Cape Town on Saturday.

During the first heat, Bako crashed at the start of the race but he managed to come third and then in the second and final heat of the day, he took a whole shot from the start and managed to keep his first position to emerge as the overall winner of the 50cc Class.

He was quite fast that he even lapped most of his competitors and was awarded for being the fastest rider of the day in this class in which he beat two top young South African riders Lucca Mynhardt and Barend du Toit into second and third place.

Another top South African junior rider Seth Young finished fourth overall in this class.

By emerging as the overall winner of the 50cc Class on Saturday, Bako stole the limelight from two fellow Zimbabwean motocross riders Jayden Ashwell and Regan Wasmuth who took part in the same event in Cape Town on Saturday.

Zimbabwe’s champion rider Ashwell took part in the main MX1 Class for the seniors but he is reported to have found the going tough in this section in which he came ninth overall while Wasmuth took the same position in the 125cc High School Class.

As Ashwell and Wasmuth had the glamour of the day stolen from them by young Bako who is fast emerging as one of the top junior motocross riders in Zimbabwe.

In fact, Bako, just like fellow young Zimbabwean rider Daiyaan Manuel, who won the South African National Championship 50cc pro Class title last year, is becoming a household name Down South where he has been racing for the past two years.

Bako together with other top Zimbabwean junior riders such as Kuda Mhene (Jnr), Manuel, Ryan Masimo, Mudiwa Chigumba, Davin Cocker, Tristan Grainger, Wade Ashwell and Wasmuth have been featuring regularly on the South African motocross circuit for the past three years where they have been flying the country’s flag high with distinction.

And speaking to The Herald from Cape Town on Saturday evening after the second round of the 2015 Monster Energy South African National Championship Series, Bako’s father, trainer and manager Brighton, said his son was just in a class of his own in this event.

“Emmanuel came up against 10 top junior 50cc riders from South Africa but he showed no ghost of inferiority complex against them as he took them head on in their own home turf. He just handled his machine with aplomb and despite crashing at the start of the first heat, he dusted himself up and rode brilliantly to come third.

“This spurred him on in the second and final heat of the day in which he just shot to the front from the word go and never looked back. He was just a joy to watch and I’m really proud of him,” Brighton Bako said of his son’s brilliant performance on Saturday in Cape Town.

Next up for Emmanuel Bako is the third round of the 2015 Monster Energy South African National Championship Series at Rover in Port Elizabeth on May 30 where he is expected to be joined by Mhene (Jnr) and Manuel who would have fully recovered from injuries that have kept them out of action for the past month.