Riv­er Raid 9, the hottest moun­tain bike race in the coun­try, or­gan­ised by the Rain­bow War­riors Triathlon Club (RWTC), takes places on Sun­day at 8am at Ch­aguara­mas.

In ad­di­tion to the ex­cit­ing run through the trails near Samaan Park, there will be moun­tain bike races for chil­dren 15 and un­der and the Elite and Fun/Sport class moun­tain bike races for 16 years and old­er.

Ath­letes will be com­pet­ing for both cash prizes, tro­phies, fin­ish­ing medals and boast­ing rights.

The adult moun­tain bike race should at­tract 70 to 80 moun­tain bik­ers and teenage sen­sa­tion and favourite Pe­ter Sel­l­i­er is ex­pect­ed to dom­i­nate the Open Class race, in the ab­sence of US rid­er Drew Es­dell, 32, who won last year in 1.00.29, with Sel­l­i­er fin­ish­ing sev­en sec­onds be­hind him. The top la­dy rid­er, Tamiko But­ler of An­tigua will al­so be in the mix to de­fend her ti­tle.

The trail run is ex­pect­ed to see more keen com­pe­ti­tion from Shane Bar­ran who won by .01 sec­onds last year ahead of Shir­van Ba­boolal who fin­ished in 19:13. Sev­en­teen-year-old triath­lete, Joshua Ho, who won the TT­TF Sprint Keep-fit last Sun­day, placed fourth last year in 21:24, and is ex­pect­ed to bet­ter his time and plac­ing this year.

"The trails are marked off for any­one to prac­tice on and will be cleaned again on Fri­day," said race or­gan­is­er Ja­son Good­ing, "and we are look­ing for­ward to a fast, fun and ex­cit­ing race. One day soon, I ex­pect to see young Pe­ter Sel­l­i­er rep­re­sent­ing this coun­try at the high­est lev­el in this sport. He is ded­i­cat­ed, hard-work­ing and very tal­ent­ed."

Spon­sors for the event in­clude Bermudez Wheat Crisps, Fu­jit­su, Arcelor­Mit­tal, CDA, Blue Wa­ters, Gatorade, Odessey Tim­ing, Sub­way and Mike's Bikes.

More

For more in­for­ma­tion go to www.rain­bowtri.com

or call; 784-4128.