Yamaha MX1 rider update
By TMX Archives on 17th Aug 07
Grand Prix of Northern Ireland comes too early for Joshua Coppins.
Joshua Coppins is recovering well from his left shoulder injury sustainedat round 11 of the MX1 World Championship held at Loket (Czech Republic) on the29th of July, but unfortunately his present condition does not permit him toenter the Grand Prix of Northern Ireland held coming weekend at the MoneyglassDemense circuit. Coppins missed the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago and now hadto decide to cancel his participation in round 13 of the championship aswell.
Joshua does the very maximum to speed up his recovery, traveling betweenBelgium, Germany and the UK to seek specialist treatment. The extensive medicalattention to the small crack in the neck of the glenoid of his left shoulder ishaving the desired healing effect, as confirmed by a CT scan made earlier thisweek which showed good progression of the bone coming back together. At his homebase in Belgium, Dr. Claes has been consulted on the therapy which includes theuse of a new magnetic 'ortho-pulse' device, massage and acupuncture given by aGerman naturopath improving blood flow and other advanced medicaltechniques.
Josh has also started with an intense physiotherapy program including a lotof swimming to improve movement in his shoulder, recently he expanded histraining with road cycling and mountain biking, but he won't ride his YZ450FMjust yet. Expectation is that after another positive CT scan scheduled for nextweek Tuesday, Joshua can start riding his bike again to prepare for the BritishGrand Prix held on the 26th of August. He hopes to enter that race still leadingthe world championship.
Before his crash at Loket Coppins held a verycomfortable advantage of 107 points, but prior to this weekends Grand Prix ofNorthern Ireland his buffer has diminished to 43 points on second placed SteveRamon with Sebastian Pourcel also still in contention with 83 points behindCoppins. Most likely the MX1 World Championship will go down to the wire untilthe last race of the series held at Lierop (NL) on the 2nd of September.
While Coppins is on his way to return to racing, Yamaha Team Ricci riderKenneth Gundersen will enter the MX1 class at Moneyglass Demense. The 25 yearold Norwegian is considering a move to this class for 2008 and considers hisentry as a good test to see how competitive he can be. He hopes for good resultsthat will contribute to Yamaha's position in the manufacturers standing in MX1,which has shrunk to just one point over Suzuki. He will race on a YZ450F machinewith YRRD kit (Yamaha Rinaldi R and D) prepared by his own team.