Five Great Southern riders walk away victorious in third round of the WA Downhill Series

Five Great Southern riders have emerged victorious in the third round of the WA Downhill Series at the “Poikies” track in Kalgan at the weekend.

A total of 54 mountain bike riders from around the State took part in the event, held on Saturday and Sunday, including 25 from the Great Southern region.

Riders were split up into 10 categories by age or gender, with half of the divisions won by local competitors.

Albany’s Flynn Catterall was crowned the champion in the under-19 category winning by more than 1.5sec. to Bryce Commins from Busselton. Margaret River’s Seth Sanderson rounded out the podium.

Catterall won in a time of 1min.26.81sec. ahead of Commins (1:28.43) and Sanderson (1:31.45).

Albany junior Declan Poett proved too strong for his seven competitors in the under-15 category and was on the podium with two fellow Albany riders.

Poett finished in a time of 1:32.70 to defeat Jackson Poett (1:37.55) and Charlie Thill (1:40.69).

The open women’s division was a battle of an Albany duo, with Jessica Waldron finishing a comfortable 29sec. in front of Hayley Poett, in a time of 2:03.16 to Poett’s 2:32.54.

Denmark’s Nathan Devenport took out the masters 3/4 division in a time of 1:28.78 defeating Perth duo Greg Foster (1:34.98) and Brent Owens (1:35.89) while Greg Ross, from Denmark, finished second in the masters 1/2 category with a time of 1:36.58.

Former Albany Urban Downhill winner Jordan Prochyra was too classy for his 10 rivals in the elite men’s category.

Prochyra, from Mindarie, completed the track in a slick time of 1:18.29 ahead of 2019 Urban Downhill champion Jaxon Sawyer from Bunbury (1:20.41) and Perth’s Harry Pearce (1:21.43).

Albany quartet Ben Halsall (1:22.22), Jayde Sleep (1:23.50), Bobby Cooper (1:23.55) and Zak Wilsher (1:24.02) filled positions four to eight.

Albany’s Tim Harman was the sole competitor in the expert men category recording a time of 1:32.55.

Albany’s Hamish Wilkes finished second in the under-17 category behind Margaret River’s Gus Kyme.

Ian Farrell, from Margaret River, won the sport men division while Denmark trio Jake and Jy Drummond along with Flynn Devenport finished in second, third and fourth behind Mandurah’s Cooper Dunlop in the under-13 category.