Kia ora, I'm Zoe Trolove and for tournament week I was representing Christchurch Girls' High School / Te Kura o Hine Waiora in Queenstown for the South Island Secondary Schools Mountain Bike Championships.

There were three events held at Coronet Peak, the cross country, downhill and enduro. The cross country was on the first day, it was quite a tough race with 3 of us out of 8 girls fighting for first place.

I had had over a month off because of an injury so I was stoked to still have a pretty good level of fitness and come away with 3rd place in the U20 girls category. Because the weather hadn't been great for the days leading up to the event it ended up being delayed a day and with the weather not looking great for the next day we ended up doing the downhill practice and seeding on the same day as the cross country.

The track was quite wet and muddy with a few frozen corners due to a lot of snow being on the track however it was still a good day and I ended up seeding in 3rd place in the U20 girls category. The next day the weather turned out nice and we did the downhill race. I was stoked to get 3rd place in U20 girls in this event after having a small crash in my race run. The third event was the enduro which had 4 different stages using a mix of Coronet Peak and Queenstown MTB club tracks. 

This was a great day and I was super stoked to get 2nd fastest time out of the girls on one track, 3rd fastest time on another track, 3rd place in U20 girls and 4th in overall girls. Then from all events over the weekend I got 2nd place in the U20 girls category. 

Overall this was a very successful weekend and a lot of fun. Thanks to Coronet Peak, Queenstown MTB club, all of the volunteers, the school and my parents for making it possible.