Teenager Jaron Maduro becomes first local cycling champion

BY DEAN GREENAWAY

Jaron Maduro made sporting history as the first British Virgin Islands born athlete to claim the National Cycling Championship last Wednesday, when he was crowned BVI Cycling Federation champion at its awards ceremony held at Mountain View Restaurant. Just 19, Maduro is the youngest champion in the nine year history of the Cycling Federation.

"Through David Thomas, Jim Cullimore and the Cycling Federation, I was able to get a lot of encouragement and experience that I didn't have before," Maduro said noting his goal was to get ahead and stay ahead. "I learnt a lot of things that I needed to know about cycling."

Already looking forward to the 2003 season that begins in February, Maduro said since he has the title and everyone will be chasing him now, he has to defend it. "I have to do my homework, put in the training hours and just ride."

BVICF president David Thomas Thomas said he wasn't surprised that Maduro was able to seize the title from John Miller. "We knew from early in the season, that because he had won four of the first five races, unless he had not finished the season, there was no way that he could not have won," Thomas said. "It's just great. It feels really good to have a local BVIslander, born and bred as champion, especially one that's so young, because it means that he can do nothing else from here on than get better."

Thomas is hoping Maduro's triumph inspires other young cyclists in the BVI. "It goes to show that if he can do it, anybody else can do it," Thomas said. "The season was really good, because, there was never a race where it was blown so wide open that you knew who was going to be the winner from time the race started. It always came down to just before the end or mid race before you knew what was going to happen. That made for a really good season this year."

In an early season rivalry that developed between Tortola and Virgin Gorda but faded later in the season, cyclists from Virgin Gorda were able to occupying five of the top 10 positions.

BVICF top 10 cyclists of 2002: 1. Jaron Maduro, 441 points. 2. Manesseh Phillips, 331. 3. Anthony Walters, 331. 4. Steve Marsh, 311. 5. Jim Cuillumore, 299. 6. Donnie George, 242. 7. Andrew Bruce, 235. 8. Conrad Emmanuel, 213. 9. Andrew Young, 199. 10. Ruben Mingo, 173.