Watch out Greg Minnaar, here comes Michael Kanis!

Despite only competing in the sport for a year and a half and having been sidelined with a broken arm earlier this year, 12-year-old mountain biker Michael Kanis from Featherbrook is flying through the ranks of the sport.

Michael, who is a learner at Curro Primary School in Krugersdorp, comes from a family where cycling courses through their veins.

His father, Johannes, his mom, Annalie, and his older brother Joshua, 15, all ride competitively in the respective disciplines of the sport. The two brothers both compete in enduro, marathon (XCM), and cross country (XCO), with the latter being the most demanding branch of mountain biking. It is also an Olympic sport. Michael also competes on three levels namely school, provincial, and national.

Michael broke his arm last December and had to undergo two operations to have metal rods secured in his arm. But when he returned to the sport in February that did not stop him from making his presence felt on one podium after the other.

On June 18 Michael finished second, thereby achieving a silver medal in the Sprogg age group (11 to 12 years) in the provincial competition for XCO. Two weeks prior to that, during trials for the national championships in the same discipline at Thabo Trails, he also finished second.

He consequently has been chosen to represent the Gauteng team at national level on July 2 at Happy Valley in Bloemfontein.

Michael who lives and breathes mountain biking does have other passions as well. He is an avid drummer, and is obsessed with airplanes and flying. He wants to become a pilot. But for now, he hopes to be as good as his mountain biking hero Greg Minnaar and hopefully follow in his brother’s footsteps who will soon be competing overseas.

Johannes told the News that in order to satisfy his sons’ hunger for mountain biking he even built a mountain biking track, complete with ramps and falls, in their backyard during the hard lockdown.