Harare BMX Club Public Relations and Communications officer- in- charge Ashleigh Mokoyi – Gore has bemoaned lagging behind of BMX athletes in Zimbabwe compared to neighbours South Africa due to lack of sponsorship.
Speaking to SportWay recently she said,”Because of financial constraints , we are not being able to nurture development riders.Some riders come from underprivileged communities and they will be good riders but they quit due to lack of money to buy BMX racing gear”.
BMX racing is still be considered the sport of the elite in Zimbabwe but they are some athletes who come from underprivileged communities who need funding for them to be nurtured as BMX racing stars.
Ashleigh Mukoyi-Gore lamented how the state and private corporates were the turning their back on the sport which has gold medalists from international events in the country’s history.”The sport is not well known around the country despite having athletes who collected gold at the World Championships”, she revealed.
She elaborated the need of development athletes to be nurtured through sponsorship.”A good example of development athletes scaling great heights is Swiss based South African BMX athlete Manqoba Madiba from KwaZulu Natal who will be competing in the 2020 Olympics”, she added.
Manqoba Madiba started racing at the age of 12 and now at 19 he is a BMX racing star.
Engulfed in these challenges of lack of sponsorship and big spaces for tournaments and practice, Ashleigh Mukoyi-Gore is not deterred to uplift the sport.
“Unlike in our country where the competition is not stiff, we attend South Africa events where the races are on big space and they have 3 national championships in a year”, she added and she is a parent to 3 BMX athletes including a girl.
Apart from the national championships once a year, Zimbabwe hosts inter-provincial competitions twice in February and October annually where the national team is selected Ashleigh Mukoyi-Gore appealed to corporates for sponsorship at club races ,I and national competitions.
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