They build them tough in the Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) and there is none tougher than six-time Champion, Jessica Gardiner.
The current AORC Women’s Champion, Gardiner had a massive off at the opening rounds of the Championship earlier this year at Victoria’s Golden Beach.
With the use of tape and a towel to raise her left arm to the height of the handlebars, she dug deep to finish the weekend and score crucial Championship points.
Gardiner is as tough as they come commenting afterward “quitting isn’t in my vocabulary”.
After the event, she would discover not only was she battered and bruised, but had also broken her left scapula.
Despite the injury and inability to ride at 100 percent, her heroic effort ensured she scored enough points to sit only 5 points behind Championship leader, Emma Milesevic, with a two-point buffer to Emelie Karlsson in third place.
The long break in between rounds has given Gardiner enough time to fully recover, and she will be ready for battle when the AORC, fires back into action.
“I have received a lot of support from my family, friends and amazing fans and sponsors in this time,” said Gardiner.
“After so much preparation and coming into the season so strong, it’s devastating to crash and break how I did at the 2nd round. Although if there was a time to be broken, I guess it was the right time.
“I wasn’t allowed back to my day job until I was cleared for full duties, so I kept myself extremely busy with house renovations.
“I was attending physio twice a week for the first 4 weeks then once a week.
“I went to a hyperbaric chamber to help the recovery, and made green shakes every day, had lots of vitamin C and D etcetera.
“A broken scapula was a tricky break as it isn’t a high blood flow area, so we really had to work hard to get it to heal as effectively as possible.”
Gardner eased back into training and is finally back in the full swing of riding and training.
“Two months off injured is enough to realise how addictive this sport really is, and the adrenaline rush it produces.
“It is such a healthy fun sport, surrounded by so many great people and families, I can’t thank everyone enough who supports the Yamaha MXstore Ballard’s Offroad Team in these crazy times,” Gardiner concluded.
