Top runner turns motocross star

2:33pm Thursday 2nd October 2008

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ULEY race ace Ashley Rymer has swapped junior running success for the adrenaline rush of motocross and has already got a championship medal under his belt.

The 19-year-old entered the British Mini 4 stroke motocross championship for fun this year and came first overall in the last event to win the Open midsize B group. From next year he will compete against the elite 30 riders in Europe by moving up into the A group and he has his sights set on a top ten finish.

Before that though Rymer enjoyed great success as a runner, finishing 15th in last year’s national schools cross country.

The former Marling School pupil also came 7th in the English schools 1500 metre championship a couple of years ago, before he decided to hang up his running boots.

He said: “To get to the next level I needed to train 12 times a week and it was getting to the point where I wasn’t enjoying it.”

Rymer began to miss the buzz of competition after a few months and at Christmas last year he decided he wanted to get into motocross as he had a love of riding motorbikes. He started riding a Stomp 110cc mini bike before changing to the more competitive Stomp 140cc for the championship.

Rymer missed round one with flu but the youngster soon got into his stride. Going into the last meeting, he was lying third and 16 points behind the leader but he finished first, third and first to come first overall at the meeting and win the championship by six points.

He said: “I am really enjoying it at the moment. It’s really good fun and a great adrenaline rush with the speed and the jumps.

“In the first race I really struggled to last 15 minutes but now it is really good and in the last race I felt really strong.”

Rymer is now looking forward to competing in the open midsize A group, and added that one day he would love to ride against the best in the World in America.

“To get a top ten finish would be really good for the first year but it’s quite a jump,” he said.

“I would like to go there (USA) if I can get good enough – it’s where it is happening. In the next couple of years we’ll see what happens.”