Image: Jeff Crow.

Team New Zealand has announced its squad ahead of the 2014 Motocross of Nations at Kegums in Latvia on 27-28 September, featuring Hamish Dobbyn, Hamish Harwood and team captain Scott Columb.

Dobbyn, who won the opening moto of the MX2 category earlier this month during the Raymond Terrace round of the Australian MX Nationals, will step up to MX1 for the prestigious international event.

MX Nationals title contender and current MXD champion Harwood will revert to a 250 four-stroke for the MXoN in MX2, while last year’s NZ MX2 champion Columb will contest the Open class. He previously raced the event in England during 2008.

“I believe we have assembled a good team,” said Team New Zealand manager Dave Craig. “With the experience of Scotty Columb, who has raced internationally for many years, and the undoubted abilities of Hamish Dobbyn and Hamish Harwood, both young men who also have raced in Europe before, I am sure we can achieve a good result.

“Youth is certainly on the side of Dobbyn and Harwood and their determination to impress will help our cause. The flights are booked and accommodation in Latvia is sorted and we are awaiting confirmation now for first-class bikes to be made available. We are receiving great help from KTM and Yamaha in Europe and that is appreciated.

“We may not have what might be considered by many as a world-beating team, but our riders have plenty of guts and determination and that counts for a lot.”

The trio of riders who represented New Zealand at the MXoN event in Germany last season – MX1 national champion Cody Cooper, Rhys Carter and Kayne Lamont – have all been ruled out through injuries, prompting NZ management to put forward a development-based line up.

New Zealand found itself in a similar situation when sending a development team to France in 2011. Though they fought bravely, the team failed to qualify for the main event, instead finishing 10th overall in the consolation B Final.

But New Zealand does have a long and proud association with the MXoN, finishing on the podium at Foxhills, England, in 1998 (Darryll King, Shayne King and Josh Coppins), at Namur, Belgium, in 2001 (Daryl Hurley, Josh Coppins and Shayne King) and at Matterley Basin, England, in 2006 (Josh Coppins, Cody Cooper and Ben Townley).