A Paeroa BMX Club coach hopes her second place finish at the recent national championships can inspire the next generation of young peddlers.
Caitlin Georgantas, who lives in Te Awamutu, first saddled up to coach in Paeroa in September last year.
She told The Profile she was “stoked” to pass on her skills and knowledge at the Taylor Ave club.
“I did a bit of coaching in Hamilton and I had done some [coaching] when I lived down in Wellington so when [Paeroa BMX Club] approached me, I thought why not help coach a different area of riders and hopefully provide as much knowledge as I can to them,” she said.
“I really enjoy the kids [at Paeroa BMX Club] and their will to learn about the sport and how passionate they are about the sport.
“I started from a small club down in Wellington and I wasn’t really good when I started and a lot of people don’t really believe that… I try to teach the kids that because they’re very much a small club that is very much like where I started.”
Caitlin said the Paeroa club was “very supportive” after her second place achievement at the 2023 BMX NZ National Championships held in Tauranga last month.
“They shared the post on Facebook and I could hear them cheering for me and it was quite cool for the kids to know a name in that class,” she said.
“I’ve been riding since 2009 and I think that might have been my 13th nationals… and I was pretty stoked [to achieve second place], happy to still be out there and pushing it with the girls.”
Caitlin said she competed under Hamilton BMX Club at the nationals.
She coached up to 30 BMX riders once a fortnight at the Paeroa club, which was also focused on getting its wheels spinning again with more members and volunteers, particularly after track damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.
“We actually spent one session we were supposed to be riding and coaching just fixing the tracks,” she said.
“Everytime it floods it just puts more work on the small amount of volunteers and members that they have, so it’s a bit of a tough one with all the flooding that’s been going on out there.
“[The club is] constantly using social media to try and get more members and volunteers… it’s a fun sport.”
