From Cairns Post, today:
Neil Cadigan
cadigann@tcp.newsltd.com.au
CAIRNS teenager Tracey Hannah may
be a world champion sportswoman and
patriotic Australian – but our national
airline could not care less.
The 18-year-old, three-times Austral-
ian downhill mountain bike champion,
last weekend won the world junior title
in Rotorua, New Zealand.
But, with other members of the Aus-
tralian team, she was forced to fork
out, on the spot, $600 in excess baggage
by Qantas officials to fly her bike over
the Tasman – despite protests from the
Australian team manager.
On the way back she was able to cut
the extra cost to $100 by sending the bike
next day via air cargo – still a shocking
backhander from Qantas which con-
stantly boasts its nationalistic spirit.
Hannah, whose elder brother
Michael came sixth in the men’s profes-
sional event at the titles, is supported
by her parents in her quest to become
the senior women’s champion and her
only sponsorship comes from Orange
Bikes, who paid for her airfares to the
United States in June.
“Every person who was with the
group had to pay excess baggage – I’d
say half the Australian team,” a still
angry Hannah said yesterday.
“They charged us $18 per kg extra,
and a bike would weigh just over 30kg.
Some riders had two bikes but I just
took one bike because I couldn’t afford
to take any more – I couldn’t afford to
pay that much extra for one.
“They said I could leave my bike be-
hind. I said ‘I’m going to the world titles
and I need it’. They didn’t care.
“The total weight of me (55kg), my
luggage and my bike would be less than
110kg yet the person standing next to
me in the line was 110kg by himself. It
doesn’t make sense.”
It was the one incident that left a
sour taste for the otherwise jubilant
Hannah, the petite blonde whose frame
defies her bulldog-like toughness and
high-speed skills on the bush slopes
– and whose favourite other pastime is
riding her motorbike.
She spent 21⁄2 months in the US from
June competing against America’s best
women and came first in the NORBA
American national series, beating
French woman Sabrina Jonnier, who
last weekend again took the world pro
title in New Zealand.
Despite being one of the first on the
track in Rotorua when the course was
muddy and slippery, a decided disad-
vantage against other girls who enjoyed
a harder more compacted track later in
the day, she finished 10th overall in the
senior women, but was winner of the
junior category.
Hannah admits she “sucked” when
she first took up the sport and soon
after was knocked unconscious and
broke her collarbone in a race. But now
she has the world at her feet.
Her parents, Helen and David de-
cided that if she worked hard enough,
they would pay for her world challenge
and she gave up her job as a “check-out
chick” to concentrate on improving her
riding. Now she is hoping to pick up
more sponsors and join brother Michael
on the elite professional circuit.
Neil Cadigan
cadigann@tcp.newsltd.com.au
CAIRNS teenager Tracey Hannah may
be a world champion sportswoman and
patriotic Australian – but our national
airline could not care less.
The 18-year-old, three-times Austral-
ian downhill mountain bike champion,
last weekend won the world junior title
in Rotorua, New Zealand.
But, with other members of the Aus-
tralian team, she was forced to fork
out, on the spot, $600 in excess baggage
by Qantas officials to fly her bike over
the Tasman – despite protests from the
Australian team manager.
On the way back she was able to cut
the extra cost to $100 by sending the bike
next day via air cargo – still a shocking
backhander from Qantas which con-
stantly boasts its nationalistic spirit.
Hannah, whose elder brother
Michael came sixth in the men’s profes-
sional event at the titles, is supported
by her parents in her quest to become
the senior women’s champion and her
only sponsorship comes from Orange
Bikes, who paid for her airfares to the
United States in June.
“Every person who was with the
group had to pay excess baggage – I’d
say half the Australian team,” a still
angry Hannah said yesterday.
“They charged us $18 per kg extra,
and a bike would weigh just over 30kg.
Some riders had two bikes but I just
took one bike because I couldn’t afford
to take any more – I couldn’t afford to
pay that much extra for one.
“They said I could leave my bike be-
hind. I said ‘I’m going to the world titles
and I need it’. They didn’t care.
“The total weight of me (55kg), my
luggage and my bike would be less than
110kg yet the person standing next to
me in the line was 110kg by himself. It
doesn’t make sense.”
It was the one incident that left a
sour taste for the otherwise jubilant
Hannah, the petite blonde whose frame
defies her bulldog-like toughness and
high-speed skills on the bush slopes
– and whose favourite other pastime is
riding her motorbike.
She spent 21⁄2 months in the US from
June competing against America’s best
women and came first in the NORBA
American national series, beating
French woman Sabrina Jonnier, who
last weekend again took the world pro
title in New Zealand.
Despite being one of the first on the
track in Rotorua when the course was
muddy and slippery, a decided disad-
vantage against other girls who enjoyed
a harder more compacted track later in
the day, she finished 10th overall in the
senior women, but was winner of the
junior category.
Hannah admits she “sucked” when
she first took up the sport and soon
after was knocked unconscious and
broke her collarbone in a race. But now
she has the world at her feet.
Her parents, Helen and David de-
cided that if she worked hard enough,
they would pay for her world challenge
and she gave up her job as a “check-out
chick” to concentrate on improving her
riding. Now she is hoping to pick up
more sponsors and join brother Michael
on the elite professional circuit.
