Thredbo Interschools 2009

The 2009 NSW Interschools Championships were held at Thredbo on the Weekend of 20-22 February 2009. Interschools is generally for kids from Year 7 up to Year 12 but as Andrew is such a pinner, he decided he'd like to take it up to the big boys so we entered both the boys into Division 3 (Years 7 & 8). Interschools this year was made up of 4X, DH and Cross Country (go the lycra boys).

As Andrew was the only rider from Bredbo PS, they ended up putting him in the Monaro High School team with Thomas, Cookie and Harrison.

The 4X was on Friday evening, and just as last year, it started raining just before start. Thomas got through all his heats and ended up in the final, which was no great shock as he was riding the track like a pro. We didn't hold out much hope of Thomas taking the win because his main competitor in the final races 4X and BMX which was a huge advantage for him as he has had a lot of gate practice. Thomas has only ever raced 4X once before and never raced BMX. Thomas wasn't overly fast out of the gates all night but you should have seen him blast out of the gate in the final. Jared Graves would have been proud of him!!! He took the lead from the start and along with his amazing jumping ability and good pedaling, he took out the Win. It was truly amazing to watch.

Afterwards I asked Thomas how he came out of the gates so fast and he said he looked at the other riders and they were really leaning back on their bikes so he decided to give that a go. Not bad having a go at something new IN THE FINAL???

Andrew got through 2 heats of the 4X and did himself extremely proud especially as he was on his DH bike.

The DH was on Saturday afternoon and Mum decided she would do the right thing and put her hand up to be a marshall on the track for race run. Practice was held in the morning and race started about 1pm. The organisers decided to let the slower riders go first and the fastest rider last. It seemed like a good idea at the time however, it ended up with quite a number of kids getting held up by slower riders. Just happened that Thomas was one of them. Anyway, Thomas still ended up 2nd out of 55 riders. That's Interschools!

As for Andrew Pinner Crimmins, in Year 6, 11 years old, would you believe he came 4th out of those same 55 riders. Yeah Andrew!

Sunday was Cross Country day with Div 3 up first. Thomas ended up 2nd and Andrew came 10th out of 35 riders. Not bad when you think the boys were up against some of those posh private schools from Sydney with all their flash bikes and their lycra. Andrew was on a borrowed bike (thanks Harro).

With the results of the 4 Monaro High riders added together in the teams results, the boys helped the Team take out 1st place 4x, 1st place DH and 2nd place XC. Damn fine effort for all the boys.

National Round 4 - Mt Buller

We've been a bit slack with the blog updates lately but I've finally found some time to do a quick update. The boys headed off to Mt Buller with the Harro's on Thursday after the Champs. Andrew went along for the ride, not sure if he was allowed to race or not but took his bike just in case Dad caved in. Dad was a bit concerned about how hard the track was so wanted to have a look before allowing the younger Crimmins pinner to have a crack.

Well, after having a look at the track, Dad decided that Andrew could race and he was one very happy team member!

Practice all day Friday with nice easy chairlifts to the top for shuttles. Back to the lodge and the boys met a few other riders also staying there so there was lots of hanging out and talking it up.

Saturday practice went well and all was on track for race day on Sunday. Thomas said as parts of the track were getting more blown out, rocks just appeared out of nowhere making the track constantly change.
Race day arrived and after limited practice runs (don't want to wear our before race) it was time to head to the top for start.

As series leader, Thomas came down the hill first in the U15's. He looked to be going well and came in in a time of 4:02.69. After a few more riders, Andrew was on track but as time was passing, Dad knew something was wrong. As it happens, Andrew had a couple of stacks in race run but fortunately did not get hurt (except his pride). Andrew's time ended up at 5:28.76. Thomas' time was good enough to see him place first out of 14 riders in U15's but was only 5 seconds ahead of the second place getter (a local boy). This is the closest anyone has come to Thomas' time in all 4 rounds but a win's a win! Well Done Thomas.

Andrew's ended up 11th and his new sponsor, The Sacred Ride, Jindabyne have told Andrew there won't be any more crashing in race run which Andrew quite happily agreed with.

Australian National Champion 2009 (U15)

What can I say, we have a National Champion in the family. We also have another member ranked number 7. How proud can two parents be?? As you can tell (and you would all know by now anyway because we made sure we rang and messaged everyone we knew), the 2009 Australian National Championships have been run and won for another year. All of Thomas' training and dedication has paid off and he is now No 1.

There were 26 starters in the Under 15 category. Thomas posted a time of 3:12.99 with second place coming in at 3.26.82. As Thomas is the highest ranked U15 rider from last year and also leading the current National Series, he got to start first. This is really handy as he knew he wouldn't get held up by a slower rider. The times showing up on the screen when each rider came past the finish line were only preliminary results and with so many of the lower riders overtaking each other or crashing, we had to wait about an hour before we knew the official results. Man did we sweat it out!! Well, it got the better of Ian and he had to go over and ask the timers, and yes it was official, Thomas had won. Yay! Thomas got heaps of comments about his new kits, especially his very bling race kit which looked even more bling with a gold medal against it. (Oh yeah, just a note the champagne was non-alcoholic).


As for Andrew, what can we say, the kid is a legend. How many
11 year olds would be able to place in the top ten (let alone 7th) in an Under 15 category at a National Championships? Not many I bet. As he just found out, with the guts comes the glory and he's got plenty of guts. Some of his riding mates on the weekend couldn't believe some of the jumps he was doing and most of them are older than him. His race kit also looked very flash on the track.

No rest for the wicked, off to Mt Buller for Round 4 this weekend. Keep an eye out for the next update. Go Team Crimmins!


This is the award Thomas received on Australia Day for "Young Sportsperson of the Year" for the Monaro Region. It was a huge weekend for us and again we are very proud of Thomas for this achievement. He is also very happy to have even been nominated for the award by his mates Blayne and Cameron.

Welcome Smith and Osborne

Team Crimmins would like to welcome Mick Perry and his Company Smith & Osborne as new sponsors of Thomas' downhill racing. Mick lives in Ormeau, Qld with his partner Reene and his daughter Shona and is Managing Director of Smith & Osborne, his Company specialising in all aspects of concrete cutting and drilling.
Thomas met Mick and his family when we stayed at their house for National Rnd 2. Mick is a former Bredbo lad having grown up in the village and sharing many stories of childhood antics with the Crimmins boys.
Mick was impressed with Thomas' attitude and dedication to his sport and as both he and his father have National titles, Mick in Open Bull Riding and continuing on to compete in the US and Canada, and John taking out multiple titles in Sheep dog trials. Mick recognises the effort involved in competing at this level.
Smith & Osborne (Mick) have just purchased for Thomas 2 Brand Spanken New Troy Lee Designs Race suits. Needlees to say Thomas is happy as Pig in Shit!!

Take a look at his new Kit
Race Run with name and sponsors printed on the back


And The Practice Kit

Thomas would also like to thank Marty and Nic at The Sacred Ride in Jindabyne for the great deal they organised on the kit.

Ian Conquers Thredbo!

We spent a few days at Thredbo after New Year so the boys could do some riding with mates from Canberra before returning a week later to ride with The BAD boys from Bemboka. Ian decided to give the downhill a go. After having done the initiation last year on a hardtail, Ian was lucky enough to borrow a dualy from Adrian who works at Harro's shop in Crackenback. It was pure luxury after only ever having ridden Thredders on a hardtail.

Well, I'm pleased to say there were no major mis haps and 7 runs later he was still in one piece (much to the family's delight). Only problem is, he had so much fun I think he's keen to go back for more!

You Yangs National Round 3

Another National Round done and dusted. After driving all day from Bredbo to Geelong with a minor mishap about 10 minutes from home (thanks Pop for helping us out, yet again. I keep telling Ian I need a new car) Our second stop, after filling up with petrol in Cooma, was to pick up Brock and the van in Berridale.

We arrived at camp and just happened to be camping next to some other mountain biking mates. We set up camp for the next 4 days with Glen and Phil Piazza and Genaro and Danielle Acunzo. We really couldn't have asked for better camping mates, we all got on like a house on fire (only there was no fire because it rained for 3 days!) Phil races U17's and Danielle races U17 women. Also camping in our park were Peter and Mitch Kristiansen and Anna and Jesse Went. Mitch and Jesse are both from Canberra and race the CORC rounds. Mitch is racing the National series U15's also and Jesse is racing in the U19's.

We arrive at the track on Friday morning to get in a good day's practice. Everything went well apart from the fact that the boys decided that the track was way too peddaly and should really be classed as an XC track, not a downhill track! Anyway, after realising it's the same for everyone and there's no use whingeing about it, it's what they've got to work with, practice went along great. Andrew said the track was fun, Thomas just did run after run. Shuttles were really fast and turn around saw them doing a run about every 15 minutes.
Friday night back at camp, after a bbq feed, it rained, and rained, and rained. It actually rained all night, I know because I was awake for most of it. Saturday morning, it was still raining. Practice on Saturday started at 12:30pm so we went to the supermarket to get some food, the hardware store to get a rain coat for Mum and silicone spray for the bikes, and headed out to the track. It was still raining. Arrive at the track and the place was like a bog hole. There was that much mud to walk through that your feet would get lost. You had to really try hard to stay on your feet. We decided to pack in practice at about 4pm and headed back to the park to do some washing. Everything was covered in mud. We were lucky enough to have to drive right past a car wash on the way back to our camp so we could stop off there every day and wash off the bikes (and clothes and shoes).

A great dinner cooked by Glen on Saturday night and we sat in our camp kitchen to watch some of the days video footage and photo's taken by Ian. Lots of laughs had by all.

Back to the track early Sunday morning for a few practice runs before race. There was only a few showers last night so we were all hoping the track would have dried out a bit. Lucky for us the weather held out on race day with no rain and the track was drying up nicely. It was actually quite amazing how quickly the track did dry up by the end of the day although us spectators did have to battle through the mud for most of the day.

After much stress and worrying (from us parents), it was race time. Lots of good lucks and stay safes and they all headed up the hill. First to race was Jesse who did his run and qualified for the U19's finals. Next was Danielle in the U17's women. Danielle was looking really good in her race run but had a bit of a mis hap but still managed to secure a podium with 3rd place. You go girl! Then it was the U17's with Phil and Brock. Phil also had a mis hap and finished 13th. Brock had a great run and came in 10th. There were 37 starters in the U17's and competition is pretty stiff.

Next down were the U15's. Standing at the finish line and the lack of commentary saw us still waiting for the last of the U17's to come down but out of the blue, here comes Thomas over the last jump. He was just about to finish his race run and we didn't even know he was on the track! He overtook one of the U17's riders just before the finish line and the timing took ages to put up his time. Eventually his time came up as 2:49.71. Next we saw Mitch come down and he was placed in 2nd for a while. Then here comes Andrew, posts a time of 3:18.17 which at that time saw him in 3rd position. At this stage in the race, Thomas was first, Mitch second and Andrew third although there were still a few riders to come so we weren't getting too excited. As it turned out, the last 2 riders posted times that knocked Mitch back to 4th and Andrew back to 5th. But still, 11 year old Andrew, in his first National event, came 5th out of 15 riders. Pretty bloody good effort.


Wow, we actually have a few weeks off now until the National Champs at Stromlo on the January long weekend. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy and prosperous New Year. Remember, if you're ever passing through Bredbo, feel free to call in and have a cuppa or a beer, we're always happy to have visitors.
Check out our latest You tube Post of the track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGGlTatptdc

Team Crimmins Update

Well, it's been a pretty full on past few weeks, we haven't had time to scratch ourselves (well maybe the boys have but I haven't!!!). Firstly, in November, Thomas applied for and was offered a Scholarship with South East Region Academy of Sport (SERAS) through their Country Energy Program. This will greatly help Thomas with the cost of his racing. I have attached a link to their website on our front page.

Next was the National Round in Geelong on the weekend of 13 & 14 December which we will do another post about but needless to say, Thomas won and Andrew came 5th. Go Team Crimmins.

On the School front, Bredbo Public School had their presentation night on the Thursday night that we arrived in Geelong. Whilst we were setting up camp Andrew received a phone call from one of his school mates. This phone call was to inform Andrew that he had been voted in as School Captain for 2009. Yay Andrew. He was also told that he had received the Sportsmanship Award for 2008. Great effort Andrew!

Monaro High School had their presentation on Tuesday 16th December where Thomas was recognised with an award for both his Interschools Mountain Biking results and also his National results.

On returning home from Geelong last weekend, I had to race to the Servo first thing Tuesday morning and get some milk for the coffee (can't start the day without my coffee) and collected the mail while I was there. There was a large envelope in the mail addressed to Thomas. Upon opening this envelope, it contained a certificate and letter to inform Thomas he had been awarded the "ClubsACT Sportstar Special Achievement Award for the Month of November 2008". This came as a total surprise to us all as we had no idea he had even been nominated. This award now puts Thomas in the running for the ClubsACT Sportstar of the year award which is announced in October/November 2009.