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Student returns to Waikato world champion blokarter once again

1 November 2010

gabe young

Gabe Young: Defended his world lightweight blokarting title at the world championships held recently in Belgium.

Waikato University computer science student Gabe Young is the world lightweight blokarting champion, again. He’s just got back from the world championships at Ostend, Belgium where he defended his world title in the lightweight performance division.

Young, who’s 20, is in his third year of a Bachelor of Computing and Mathematical Science degree at Waikato. He’s a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholar, which means his fees are paid, and a senior residential assistant at Bryant Hall on campus which pays enough to cover his rent. He’s fortunate he only had one exam this season; it meant he could compete in Belgium without the pressure of several exams looming over his head.

One of the other members of the 17-strong New Zealand team was Gabe’s twin brother Angus who came third. “Angus and I both race in the same division and we are competitive, but we also give each other ideas and advice when we’re not racing. It works well because we don’t have a coach in our sport and we tend to learn from other blokarters; usually one’s in other classes who we don’t race against.”

Clearly, he’s pleased to retain his world title. “I felt a bit rusty going to Belgium, because I hadn’t done a lot of beach racing – you don’t get the same opportunities living in Hamilton, and at Papamoa we race on a sealed track, but luckily it all came together when we finally got to race on the beach at Ostend.”

The championships were a bit frustrating - a blokarter’s nightmare – there was no wind for the first three days of the five day competition so all 135 competitors had to hang around. They then managed eight races on the last two days. “Basically you race over a set course for eight minutes and the person who completes the most laps is the winner. The starts are like America’s Cup yacht races, where you warm up for two minutes and try to be in the best position near the start line when the hooter blows.”

Gabe Young, who hails from Papamoa and went to Te Puke High School has another year to go to complete his degree. He’s not sure where he’ll end up working, but reckons he’ll be blokarting for another 60 years. “The average age of blokarters is somewhere between 40 and 50, a lot of them are former water sailors. Some competitors are in their 80s so I could be defending my world title for a long time.”


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