WAMBA and WestCycle would like to congratulate Mark Wardle on his two year appointment as WAMBA Junior State MTB Coach.

Interviews were held last week with WAMBA and WestCycle representatives, where nominees were asked to present their vision of the junior state mountain bike team and high performance for WA. Thank you to everyone who applied for the position.

As a rider, Mark has competed at a state and national level, and been heavily involved in junior development for a number of years through the Perth MTB Club. He was involved with the junior state team in the first year of its existence and also currently coaches some exciting junior talent. Having started Rock and Roll Mountain Biking with his hard working wife Jen, they run the PMBC Sprockets Junior Mountain Bike Program, have run junior development camps for MTBA, and this year ran the first WA Schools Cross Country MTB Championships to be held in 10 years.

Do you want to be involved in the new direction for high performance mountain biking in WA?

In preparation for the March 2017 MTBA National Championships in QLD, WestCycle is calling for nominations for the WAMBA Junior MTB State Coach, who will be the figure head of the WAMBA MTB State Squad and State Team.

The roles and responsibilities for the WAMBA Junior MTB State Coach are below. This will be a 12-month appointment and will be aligned with the WestCycle High Performance strategy:

Exciting progress for junior development and high performance in WA mountain biking!

Since early 2015, WAMBA has been working with the Department of Sport and Recreation (DSR) and WestCycle to establish a pathway to support high performance mountain biking in WA.

In order to help shape the successful future of high performance cycling across all disciplines (Track, Road, Mountain Biking, BMX and Para-Cycling), WestCycle has, with the help of DSR funding:

• Employed a High Performance Manager
• Prepared a Western Australian Cycling High Performance Plan (due for release later this year)

WAMBA and others from within the mountain bike community have provided mountain bike specific input into the WA Cycling High Performance Plan, which is the first step in developing and implementing a Western Australian Mountain Bike High Performance Plan – a key recommendation from the WA Mountain Bike Strategy.

2016/17 WAMBA U15 & U17 Mountain Bike State Squad and State Team

This year will see a new direction being taken for the WA junior state team. WAMBA will again be sending a team to the MTBA National Championships, which will be held in Canungra, QLD from 16^th to 19^th March 2017.  But in a change to past years, only U15 and U17 riders will be included in the squad/ team environment and there will be no nominations required from junior riders.

Instead, after next month’s WA State Championships, personal invites will be sent out to members of the new WAMBA State Squad – as chosen by the WAMBA State Selection Panel. From the state squad, a smaller WAMBA State Team will then be selected to represent our state at the National Championships wearing the black and gold.

Congratulations to the winning schools in the inaugural 2016 WA Schools Mountain Bike Championships, held at the Goat Farm Mountain Bike Park on Friday 5^th August!!

1st – Carmel College, Perth 2nd - Mazenod College, Perth 3rd - Mandurah Catholic College

It’s been over 10 years since a schools mountain bike state championships has been held in WA, and it proved to be a huge success with schools from around the state competing on a short, but challenging course. The event was open to all schools, for Years 7-12 to compete as solo competitors or teams.

Congratulations to all the competitors and schools involved! Approximately 80 students from 16 schools participated on the day. It was fantastic to see the smiles and hear the cheers from fellow classmates, as they challenged themselves around the course.