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Bilko wins FMX Rider Of the Year award

Sunday, 11 October 2009 23:30

ANZAC riders have had a great showing at Transworld MX’s inaugural awards night, with Bilko Williams, Chad Reed and Levi Sherwood all walking away with trophies.

Following his gold and silver medals at X Games, Bilko beat fellow Aussie Robbie Maddison and good mate Nate Adams to the award for Freestyle Rider Of The Year.

In his acceptance speech Bilko dedicated his award to the late, great Jono Porter.

“I thought it was fitting to dedicate the award to him,” Bilko told us this morning. “He’s the one that got me started in freestyle in the first place and I owe him a lot.”

Bilko has won other magazine awards in the past, but he says this one stands out the most.

“The other awards I’ve done are voted by the public, so it’s more of a popularity contest. This one is solely an internal decision and is voted on by industry players and sponsors,” he explains. “To be recognised by those people – especially in the US – was really special. It was great Transworld made a night out of it instead of just making a phone call to the winners, too.”

What followed was a massive night for the riders, and Bilko temporarily lost his trophy at the same time, before finding later on that he’d actually brought the award to his room and packed it away for continuing the party.

“Yeah I was pretty maggot. There were plenty of distractions that night!” he says. “But now it’s going straight to the pool room.

Meanwhile, Levi Sherwood cashed in with the Rookie Of The Year Award. However, the grom had already flown back to New Zealand to see out the year and his rehab and wasn’t able to pick up the trophy in person.

“I found out at the LG FMX Championships that I’d won the award and was pretty stoked eh,” he told us this morning. “I already had my flights booked back to New Zealand, so originally I was going to get Bilko to say my speech for me. But they made me do a video speech instead. I was pretty happy to have won, despite battling injuries for most of the year.”

CAPTION: Bilko's reunited with his FMX Rider Of The Year Award. PHOTO: Bilko