The final round of the FIM Women’s World Championship this weekend at the Lierop circuit for the Grand Prix of Benelux will not be able to count on the participation of one of the main stars of the series. Double Women’s World Cup winner and Yamaha rider Katherine Prumm is currently recovering from operations to her right knee and left wrist as well as the collarbone break that prematurely ended her season while leading the standings of the inaugural championship.

Due to her presence at an FIM meeting this week (fulfilling her role as one of the ambassadors of the growing scene that is women’s motocross) Prumm sadly cannot be in the Netherlands as a spectator for the last GP of the campaign and will shortly head back to her native New Zealand and continue rehab and planning for 2009. Her time under the surgeon’s knife was not a straightforward as initially envisaged.

‘On July 25th I had my operation in Auckland with Dr Barry Tietjens, who reconstructed the right ACL in my knee,’ she recounts. ‘They also removed the plates from my left wrist which was meant to be a fairly easy process but the doctors found that the plates were buried in the middle of the bone so they had to be scraped out.’

‘For the first ten days after the operation my body was under a lot of strain with three injuries (my collarbone was still healing) and for two weeks afterwards I was sleeping over 12 hours a night recovering. It was tough being on the couch for two weeks but I had friends and family to keep me entertained and it gave me time to catch up on the Olympics!’

‘It has now been five weeks since the op and the wrist is feeling great and my knee is still swollen but getting better every day. I have been busy with the physio and surgeon to carry out different exercises to get me back in shape. My collarbone is also finally all healed up and I’m feeling positive about everything for 2009.’

Despite missing a ligament in her knee due to a pre-season mishap, Prumm gained two podium results in three rounds of the five race series and fronted the points table. She joined Yamaha at the start of the year in what was a new positive association for the multi national champion and popular racer. ‘It was great to be a part of the Yamaha family in 2008 and I was disappointed to not be able to deliver them a world title this year,’ she said. ‘The bike was great and all the riders in the Yamaha group are really friendly and easy to talk to.’

With two World Cup titles in the build-up to the formation of the first world championship in 2008, Prumm is undoubtedly one of the top riders and ‘faces’ in women’s motocross today and is in a privileged position to see the swift expansion of the discipline. The FIM competition – which runs concurrently with the MX1-GP and MX2-GP categories – will reach at least eight rounds in 2009.

‘Motocross is a fantastic sport and I hope that girls can see that it is well supported and encouraged. I would urge anyone to take the plunge give it a go,’ she added. ‘I think international women’s motocross has grown a huge amount in 2008. The numbers of riders wanting to race is increasing and the girls are also taking the championship more seriously and working really hard during the season on fitness and conditioning. I think the manufacturers are starting to see that the women’s market is competitive and a positive direction for them to look in. I would still like to see longer races but I am really happy with the development of more GPs and higher entries.’