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Whatever happened to ...

the BMX World Cup champion from Northdale?

By SHERYL KAY
Published December 29, 2006

After taking second place at the BMX World Cup Championship in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Michele Peters was ready for some serious training.

The 21-year-old packed her bags and headed up to Raleigh, N.C., where she felt she could gain some independence by living away from home while training full-time with a teammate.

Three months has gone by, and Peters is back in Northdale. Raleigh was too quiet, she said. "I wanted to get back to my family and friends."

Quiet, but not uneventful. Peters raced in three national level competitions, then went to the Grand Nationals in Kentucky where she took a bad fall and separated her shoulder.

"Going into the last turn, I went under a girl and she came down from the turn and knocked me off," Peters said. "I fell all the way down the turn, right on my shoulder."

She was sidelined for a month and a half.

With her injury now healed, Peters is back on her bike with her sights set on the USA qualifiers, then on to the World Champs in June. She said her main goal is to be "world No. 1".

Peters said she can't ever imagine a day when she won't be riding BMX, but she knows her professional racing days are limited.

"My body is starting to ache all the time and become more sore," she said. "But honestly, you're never too old for BMX."

Sheryl Kay can be reached at 813 230-8788, or skreporter@hotmail.com.

Disc golf enthusiasts living in northern Hillsborough County will have to keep trekking to Lithia, Clearwater and Brooksville.

A months-long effort to bring a new public disc golf park to the county's northeast corner has foundered.

"What we're trying to do is locate a piece of property that would work well," says Jennifer McCray, who is spearheading the initiative along with her husband, world-ranked disc golfer John E. McCray.

That means locating a site that doesn't host other major events or have large buildings or trails, but does have a rolling, treed terrain for a competition-worthy course.

Classes for children at Nye Park in Lutz scheduled in the fall fell through. But the McCrays intend to offer summer instruction for youths .

Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at (813) 269-5304 or solochek@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 28, 2006, 07:14:30]