Towns best on bike

By Paul Pickering
MEET Matt Towns – Blind Bight’s answer to Aussie BMX poster boy Kamakazi.
Okay, the mild-mannered Kooweerup Secondary College student may never have the public profile – or the piercings – of the Beijing Olympian, but he’s got the passion.
Towns, 15, has had a huge year on the bike, progressing through the Victorian and Australian BMX championships to earn a spot at the recent world titles in Adelaide.
And after establishing himself on the international BMX stage, Towns this month decided to try his luck at the Victorian Schools Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships in the You Yangs.
He finished second in the solo 16-and-under division, surprising himself and many of his more experienced opponents along the way.
Riding has become an all-consuming passion for the Year 9 student, who has only been competing for around four years.
Towns took to BMX quickly and, with the help of his mechanic father, started collecting and building bikes as a hobby.
BMX has always been his pet discipline. He finished seventh in the Victorian Championships and 18th in the nationals this year.
But in recent times, he has taken to building his own motorised pushies and even tackling the notoriously dangerous discipline of downhill biking.
Towns says the adrenaline rush tends to override the potential for disaster.
“You don’t worry about (getting injured) too much,” he said.
“I’ve been pretty lucky, because I haven’t really broken anything.
“A kid I know broke his neck, but all I’ve done is get knocked out twice and tear my groin.”
Despite his recent success, Towns is under no illusions about what it will take to reach the elite level of his sport.
He was delighted to see BMX get the nod as a demonstration sport in Beijing, but the level-headed teenager has barely contemplated his own Olympic dream.
“I’d love to get to the Olympics, but I’ve only been doing BMX for four years,” he said.
“Some kids have been doing it since the age of three and a half, so they’ve got a lot more experience. I’m still doing it for fun, but I take it pretty seriously.”