Motocross championship witnesses stiff battle among riders

VADODARA: After receiving an overwhelming response last year, the fifth national motocross championship was hosted once again in the city on Sunday. With arch-rivals Yamaha and TVS Racing being the favourites to start from the grid, people gathered in huge numbers to see their favourite bikers vroom past a combination of 27 single, double and triple jumps.Considered as one of the toughest in the six-round motocross the Vadodara circuit witnessed some stiff battle between leading riders in C Vijaykumar, Yogesh Barguje, T K Vishwanath, and C S Santosh in the up to 250 cc Indian experts foreign motorcycles. Last year's champion C Vijaykumar from TVS Racing team, who is leading the points tally this season as well, suffered a minor setback after he was relegated to the second spot following a technical snag in his vehicle. Yogesh Barguje of Yamaha took the day's honour. However, in the points tally Vijaykumar collected 30 points to take his lead to a comfortable 165 points from five rounds. T K Vishwanath of Yamaha, who was second in the points tally with 105 points, came in fourth collecting 23 points. Meanwhile, his team-mate Yogesh Barguje collected 35 points to take his points tally to 118, just ten points behind Vishwanath. The surprise package of the day came from 49-yearold Frank Whighan who took the honours competing against a much younger lot in the intermediate class. Whighan, an amateur rider, proved a point or two to his Indian counterparts that they have a long way to go. The interesting part of the day was Whighan and his bike, as he kept the crowd on their feet with his mammoth jumps.