National Enduro Championship set to thrill fans as season kicks off

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MOTORSPORT National Enduro Championship set to thrill fans as season kicks off

Shafic Kiyaga 21:11 - 12.05.2023

With the excitement for the event palpable, reigning champion Ali Omar Yasser, popularly known as Bobo, will not be present in Kasanje to get his title defence underway.

The National Enduro Championship will kick off its 2023 season with the opening round at Kasanje motocross track on Saturday.

The championship has been highly anticipated since the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the event from taking place last year.

The championship has also run only one event in Busoga since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.

With the excitement for the event palpable, reigning champion Ali Omar Yasser, popularly known as Bobo, will not be present in Kasanje to get his title defence underway.

Bobo had dominated the Enduro Championship for two seasons until his brother Wazir Omar took charge of the last edition held in Sisa in 2019.

Bobo and his brother are currently preparing for the fourth round of the National Motocross Championship at Kyakaigo Arena in Tourism City Fortportal.

However, this presents an opportunity for new competitors to rise up and challenge for the title.

Over twenty competitors are expected to face off in the opening round of the Enduro Championship, battling it out in a challenging 5km route.

The route will include several changing fields, going through forests, water-logged places, and jumps at the Kasanje motocross track.

Sam Sewali, the route designer, revealed that the competitors should expect a challenging route due to heavy rains.

"We looked at the safety of racers, so we avoided the deep-water ends, but we came up with other challenging areas," Sewali told the media.

Enduro is a form of motorcycle sport run on extended cross-country, off-road courses consisting of many different obstacles and challenges going go through rocky areas, jump logs, and go through water-logged areas. 

The main type of enduro event, and the format to which the World Enduro Championship is run, is a time-card enduro, whereby a number of stages are raced in a time trial against the clock.

Despite Bobo's absence, thirty other riders, including Mukiibi Jordan, Leon Steyn, Yasin Ssemakula (Class1), Fatuh Kiggundu, Christian Milleti, Cymon Charnley, and Scott Nicholson (class 2), will be competing in the championship.

The others are Jerome Mubiru, Ally Kimera, Miguel Katende, Jonathan Katende (Junior class1), Jason Burrows, Shakur Ssebagala, and Mubarak Ssenoga (Class J2).

As the riders gear up for the race, the anticipation is high, and even with Bobo missing from the first round of the championship, the competition is open to any of the thirty riders who will be participating.

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