Another Whakatipu youngster’s about to take on the big guns.
Arrowtown’s Josh Bonnar, 17, is only a couple of weeks away from a six-month OE competing on the mountain biking world stage.
A downhill devil, Josh is part of the KiwiDH race team racing in the 2023 Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, starting his European adventure in Austria next month.
A former Wakatipu High student, Josh is in his fourth season of downhill, placing third in his age group at the Coronet Peak and Dome Valley rounds of the downhill national champs last year, and won a qualifier at nationals earlier this year before suffering an ‘‘off-track excursion’’ resulting in a concussion.
He’s stoked to get the call to compete overseas and wants to use the opportunity to see where he can take his talent.
‘‘I like to have an idea of where I’m going but not get too ahead of myself.
‘‘I’ll go over and get an idea … best-case scenario, we do well and get offered a spot on a team to go over again next year, so I don’t have to fund it myself.’’
Though he was invited to join the team, Josh has to front most of the cash, so is saving hard as an apprentice sparky and has started a Givealittle — bit.ly/3NQtMqx
