QUEENSBURGH BMX Club is determined to make up for the time lost last year from the racing season.
“Our 2020 season did not take place due to lockdown restrictions, in turn this made it extremely difficult for the track to make money to keep up the maintenance. We relied a lot on donations to pay our utilities every month,” said Paige Muller the club’s spokesperson.
Along with the shorter timespan within which to race, there are also strict rules any racing club wanting to hold events has to comply with.
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“Racing this year is taking place, but we have been met with many difficulties due to the restrictions on how many people are allowed to attend any events,” explained Muller.
Social sport
Muller explained that the sport of BMX racing is by its very nature sociable: “We have had to try and take a very sociable sport and try and stop kids from playing and interacting with each other as they usually would,” she said. “We have had to cut our races down drastically to fit everything in within a shorter time frame,” she explained.
Spectators
“There will now also be designated spectator areas and social distancing will need to be adhered to as well as the wearing of masks as much as possible to keep us compliant with Cycling South Africa (CSA) in order to continue to host races.”
In addition to the new regulations, Queensburgh BMX Club has faced some practical difficulties which resulted from the long absence of regular meetings at the club in Queensburgh.
Vandalism
“The fact that we were not allowed at the track for such a long time ended up costing us a lot due to theft, vandalism and damage to the track due to rain and not being able to have work parties to fix everything as soon as possible,” she explained.
“We had theft of the taps, wiring of the light fittings, lights and gym equipment,” said Muller adding that the club was very thankful to the ward councillor Chris van den Berg, who had ensured that the problems due to the broken pipe which prevented the meeting from happening last weekend, were fixed in time for the later date this coming weekend.
Muller also said the club was very grateful to the city for cutting the grass in the park adjacent to the club and track.
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At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.
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