Duncan wins his third world motocross title

New Zealand’s Courtney Duncan won her third consecutive women’s motorcycle world title at the final round in Trentino, Italy.

Duncan entered the final round of the series by 16 points over nearest rival Chiara Fontanese, but a bit of bad racing luck prevented the Italian from fighting until the final race.

In the first race, German Larissa Babenmeier beat Nancy van de Veen (Netherlands), followed by Duncan and Amandine Verstappen (Belgium).

Fontanese recovered from the first crash to return to 15th, but that wasn’t enough to lead the title fight into the final race.

In the second race, Fontanese fell again but recovered from the last places and finished seventh.

Babenmeier led Duncan at the start, but the New Zealander took the lead on the second lap, extending his lead to 4.391secs over the German.

Duncan retained complete control up to the checkered flag, taking her fifth race win of the season with Papenmeier taking second, ahead of Van de Veen who was able to overtake Dutchman Lynn Valk.

With a race win and second, Papenmeier won the final round of the series, with Duncan taking second on the podium, and Van De Ven third.

In terms of the championship, Duncan won his third consecutive world title as Van de Veen finished the 2021 season with the silver medal ahead of Fontanese, who had to be content with the bronze.

Duncan, 25, was delighted to finish the season in style.

“Obviously it’s been a good season with good fights, good races and bad races. I’ve just taken advantage of every situation this year, fighting for every point I can, and it’s great to win a third championship.”

Duncan said she was “a little nervous” in the first race of the day, but her third place finish and a championship finish made the second race a lot more fun.

“I think I was in control after a few laps since the start of the race and I drove really well to stay in that position. It was good to finish the season with a win and I will enjoy it.”