Ukhrul: Jorcheng is ready to host the 4th edition of MTB downhill organised by Chiko Adventures. The race village and the track is built and managed by Manipur Downhill society(MDS).
The race will be directed by Nelson Hoover, a Certified UCI Level 1 Track builder and a Certified Advanced Mountain bike coach from Ministry of Defence.
With altogether 24 confirmed riders, the event will feature three categories. Hard tail, Full Suspension and Women’s Open.
11 participants have signed up for Hard tail and 13 others for the Full Suspension category. Unfortunately the Women’s open category has seen no participation at the time of filing this report. .
The riders have had the opportunity to prep and feel the race track after the practice run held today. The main events, however, starts tomorrow, May 26. kicking off with the Hard tail category.
Professionally skilled riders from different parts of India has signed up for the MTB event this year, with participation from Manipur, Meghalaya, Assam and Nagaland.
“We have been receiving lots of enquiries this past week for the MTB event from many other states and international countries like UK, Czech Republic and Nepal but unfortunately, due to the short notice, they couldn’t be here this year,” said Shangcham, co-founder, Chiko Adventures.
The track is a 1.6 km long of unforgiving terrain consisting of diverse track features that will test the skills and push the boundaries of the riders. Featuring monstrous sections of grass, forest, rock, roots and wooden berms. The riders will encounter difficult cornering, kicker and drop jump sections which will require high tactical skills to execute the high speed descent.
Speaking to Yursem A.C. an athlete who came in the top 8 position representing Manipur state in National MTB championship held in Pune in 2021 said that the track this year is unlike any tracks he’s seen in the past years. Yursem also is a consecutive fourth time competitor in the Shirui Lily MTB event securing 3rd and 6th position in the Shirui Lily MTB in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
“The track is much more gnarly this year. We have five challenging sections this year like cornering, root, rocky, berms, jumps which will require a lot of mapping and planning, as challenging as it may, it will be a lot of fun,” added Yursem.
This year’s event will feature two new riders. Lummimung Shimrak and Thotmachan Awungshi from Ukhrul town. It will be their first participation in any MTB event. The duo has had good four trial runs today in the practice run and they are looking forward with confidence for tomorrow’s event in the Hard tail category.
The scheduled line-up for this year’s MTB has been released and they are as follows:
26th May: Seeding Run for MTB Downhill Hardtail Category
27th May: Seeding Run For MTB Downhill Full Suspension Category
28th May: Final Run for MTB Downhill Hardtail and Full suspension category.
The race will be conducted between 12:00 pm till 4:00 pm everyday.
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