Motocross rider Wills Harvey will base himself in Taupō next year to further his sport and some of his coaching will be paid for by the McGlashen Pharmacy Young Achiever Scholarship.
The 17-year-old was awarded $1,000 from the annual scholarship and has serious goals for his motocross. He heads to Taupō with his long-time motocross mate Luke Heaphy and the pair plan to train daily, get coaching and compete around the country.
“What’s got us so far is we’ve been able to train together, and we’ve pushed each other along.”
Last year Wills won the New Zealand Junior National Championships in Taranaki on an 85cc bike and this year he rode a 125cc bike in the 15-16-year-old group in Invercargill to cross the line with the winner and finish second overall in the count.
He has been racing since he was seven years old, which was “a pretty late start really,” and travelling the country to races ever since.
“I just always wanted to be a motocross rider and when I got my first bike at seven for Christmas, I never looked back. We used to live in Richmond and had a track on the front lawn.”
Now he is sponsored by Murray Thorn Motorcycles in Motueka, gets support from Josh Coppins Racing (JCR) and has his sights set on eventually heading overseas and going pro, either with AMA Pro Racing in the United States or MXGP world tour.
Andrew McGlashen says he was “inundated and overwhelmed” by the number and quality of applicants this year. Because of that, he also awarded two $500 scholarships to Rhian Douglas and Hector McNeilly.
Rhian became New Zealand’s fastest-ever 100m sprinter under 14 with a time of 10.9 seconds at the recent New Zealand Secondary School Athletics. Hector has set nine New Zealand records for archery and was ranked fifth in the world at the World Archery Championships in the under 18-year-old category.
A further $500 was sponsored by Richmond IT company Squarekicker to 15-year-old Joel Batchelar for computer programming and digital IT.
Andrew says the level of activity has risen dramatically since Covid-19 restrictions were lifted and “locally the kids are achieving phenomenally.”
