Moorosi Tsiane
LESOTHO Sky founder Christian Schmidt says the country has been offered six spots for the Redbull Pump Track qualifiers in July this year in South Africa.
Schmidt announced this during a recent media briefing saying Redbull, who are the main sponsors of the event, have identified Lesotho as one of the least developed countries and they have offered their support.
He said in order to get the six athletes who will represent the country in South Africa while trying their luck to qualify for the World Championships set for either September or October 2019, they will host their own qualifiers on 30 March at their own pump track at Roma Trading post.
“This is a very exciting event as it will be the second year that Redbull is coming into the country,” Schmidt said.
“Redbull has identified Lesotho as a least developed country and have offered a support for our athletes. Pump track, like ours in Roma, currently exists in 22 countries across the world, so each country holds its own qualifying event and the finalist from each country qualifies for the World finals. We are not yet sure of the dates of the finals and the host country but they will be held either in September or October.
“South Africa has two pump tracks, one in Durban and one in Pretoria and Redbull would like to see more athletes from Lesotho partaking in pump track cycling and we have been offered a space for six athletes (three males and three females). Any female or male rider from Lesotho above 16 years can qualify for the race in South Africa in July.
“Next month we are going to hold qualifiers for the pump track where the top three riders from both males and females will qualify to represent the country at the July World Championships qualifiers which will be staged in South Africa.”
Schmidt said Redbull would want to see more athletes from Lesotho participating in the pump track series.
“Redbull would love to see us sending athletes at this series and to prepare Lesotho riders for this series, we have at least two races this Saturday (yesterday) and another one will be on 16 March 2019. This will help the athletes to improve their times before the main qualifiers on 30 March 2019,” Schmidt said.
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