Karratha mountain biker a State champion

Karratha’s young mountain-biking prodigy has added another trophy to her ever-expanding cabinet after becoming the overall champion for under-15 girls at the WA Gravity Enduro Series.

The final round of the series was held on October 12 to 12 at Evedon Park, with Sophie Taylor winning the round convincingly after taking out every stage of the event.

Taylor competed in six out of the seven Enduro Series rounds, with the young athlete travelling to Pemberton, Margaret River, Balingup, Dunsborough, Mundaring and Burekup throughout the year.

She competed in two rounds last year, but decided to commit this year after coach Alan Kurilowski suggested she and a few boys give it red-hot crack.

Taylor said the best part of the WA Gravity Enduro Series was getting to ride with mates.

“My coach was there and it was an awesome environment,” she said.

“I really enjoyed the tracks down there; they’re a lot different from what we have up here, certainly a lot harder, so it was good to see how I compared to the other riders.”

Having competed twice last year without results, Taylor set herself the aim of finishing the 2019 series in the top three.

“To win overall champion was a really big sense of achievement and I felt really proud,” she said.

“I was so grateful to my coach and the boys who have trained with me.

“We’ve been training together as a team for the past three years, so it was awesome for all that hard word to have paid off.”

Taylor hopes to take her career as far as she can and has big plans for 2020.

“I’ve been talking with my coach and next year I’m hoping to get to the national series to see the next level of trails, which we can’t get in WA,” she said.