Neko Mulally Takes Gold And Silver At US nationals
Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 6:17AM 18 year old Neko Mulally from Reading, Pennsylvania, picked up 2 medals and a fastest time of the day honor at the US National Championships held this past weekend in Beech Mountain, North Carolina.
His first medal came in the Dual Slalom where he was able to compete against the best Pro's in the US, and found himself in the final against celebrated slalom rider Mitch Ropelato. The first round of the final saw the two riders within 100th's of a second of each other, and the gap between the two at the end of the match up was only 0.37secs.
About his Dual Slalom, Neko said: "This was the first time I'd raced slalom all year and I really enjoyed it. It was tight racing and the crowd was huge, which made for a really fun night of riding my Trek. The crowd was so loud I could hardly hear the cadence in the gate!"
In the Downhill Championships, as Neko is still a junior until the end of this year, he was placed in the Junior category, which he won decisively by nearly 11 seconds over Austin Warren, in the very wet conditions. Team mate Aaron Gwin crashed in the Elite Men's and took 2nd. Neko's time of 2mins 43.2secs was 1.5secs quicker than anyone else that day and would have won him the elite men's title, but rules are rules, so Neko will wait until 2012 to have his shot at that coveted US Flag on the sleeve of his team jersey.
On the Downill, Neko said: "National Champs was something I have been looking forward to all year. It was a really fun atmosphere down in North Carolina. So many familiar faces and good people around. All the tracks were really well built, fun and challenging. My good friend Christopher Herndon has been working here all summer preparing for the event and really did an awesome job. It was typical east coast weather all week with a little rain every day and foggy mornings. Fox Racing Shox was there and we pitted with them for week, and Shimano was also there with full support.
"The downhill track was really hard by race time. I ran my Wetscreams uncut for the first time ever. I had a good run, got sideways and was really stoked to post the fastest time."
