Prumm leads MX champs

Katherine Prumm (Yamaha) has won the second round of the 2008 Yamaha Australian Women's Championship held in Newry, Victoria on Sunday May 25.

Despite rupturing her ACL earlier in the year, the Kiwi out-rode Aussie contenders such as Kristy Gillespie (KTM), Ashlea Bates (Husqvarna), Adelia Barton (Honda) and Amy Boyd (Suzuki) who were some of the only riders to come close to the World Champ in the two Women's motos.

In the first moto, Prumm had a solid start and was closely followed by Barton for the first few laps.

Prumm eventually shook Barton off and roared ahead, leaving Barton to battle with Gillespie for second and third.

While the first moto seemed to come easily for the Yamaha rider, she was forced to earn her keep in the second, battling a poor start and a strong and victory hungry field.

Barton led the pack out and soon took the lead chased down by Boyd, Gillespie, Bates and Lauren Parsons (Honda) with Prumm nowhere to be seen.

Leading up to the back straight Barton lost her bike, and watched as the rest of the field flew by, including a defiant Prumm who was slowly picking her way through the field.

After four laps, the Kiwi had worked her way up to second place behind Boyd, and after a lap of leaving tyre marks on her back, she overtook to take her place at the front of the field.

Boyd kept pace with the World Champ before slipping back into the clutches of Gillespie where the final battle of the moto took place.

While Prumm increased her lead, a war of the wills took place between second and third when on the last lap Gillespie managed to squeeze past Boyd to bring home the race in second place.

Speaking after the race, Prumm said that while she was enjoying herself out on the track she was battling more than a knee injury on the day.

"I'm fairly jet lagged still from the flight over," Prumm said.

"I was sitting up at three o'clock this morning, not knowing what country I was meant to be in and watching DVDs on my computer, and now I'm half asleep eating lollies trying to keep myself awake.

"The track is pretty rough but it's fun to get out there, and I'm enjoying myself."

When asked why she chose to continue riding with her injured knee Prumm said that while she knew it was a risk, she'd worked to hard to not even try.

"I'd just worked way too hard this year, and I was just sitting there and I wasn't going to be the best company sitting in Europe not riding so I gave it my best shot."

Undoubtedly Australia's strongest contender for the Championship, Gillespie who has struggled to get out of the gate as quick as she'd like this year, was happy with the day.

"I've been struggling with starts a bit this year," Gillespie said.

"I'll definitely be working on it before the next few rounds, I do prefer dirt starts so hopefully I can get off a bit better in Lakes and make the rest of the race a whole lot easier for myself."

2008 Yamaha Australian Women's Motocross Championship Results:

Overall Championship Standings:

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