Grand Prix of Northern Ireland comes too early for Joshua Coppins

Joshua Coppins is recovering well from his left shoulder injury sustained at round 11 of the MX1 World Championship held at Loket (Czech Republic) on the 29th of July, but unfortunately his present condition does not permit him to enter the Grand Prix of Northern Ireland held coming weekend at the Moneyglass Demense circuit. Coppins missed the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago and now had to decide to cancel his participation in round 13 of the championship as well.

Joshua does the very maximum to speed up his recovery, traveling between Belgium, Germany and the UK to seek specialist treatment. The extensive medical attention to the small crack in the neck of the glenoid of his left shoulder is having the desired healing effect, as confirmed by a CT scan made earlier this week which showed good progression of the bone coming back together. At his home base in Belgium, Dr. Claes has been consulted on the therapy which includes the use of a new magnetic 'ortho-pulse' device, massage and acupuncture given by a German naturopath improving blood flow and other advanced medical techniques.

Josh has also started with an intense physiotherapy program including a lot of swimming to improve movement in his shoulder, recently he expanded his training with road cycling and mountain biking, but he won’t ride his YZ450FM just yet. Expectation is that after another positive CT scan scheduled for next week Tuesday, Joshua can start riding his bike again to prepare for the British Grand Prix held on the 26th of August. He hopes to enter that race still leading the world championship. Before his crash at Loket Coppins held a very comfortable advantage of 107 points, but prior to this weekends Grand Prix of Northern Ireland his buffer has diminished to 43 points on second placed Steve Ramon with Sebastian Pourcel also still in contention with 83 points behind Coppins. Most likely the MX1 World Championship will go down to the wire until the 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 rider Kenneth Gundersen will enter the MX1 class at Moneyglass Demense. The 25 year old Norwegian is considering a move to this class for 2008 and considers his entry as a good test to see how competitive he can be. He hopes for good results that 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 machine with YRRD kit (Yamaha Rinaldi R and D) prepared by his own team.