Bay of Plenty's Roma Edwards is not wasting any time in her bid to add the 2023 New Zealand Motocross Championships title to the British crown she won a year ago.

The 20-year-old from Mount Maunganui races for the Motul Honda team in New Zealand and has been competing and winning at the top level for quite some time and seems to be getting faster with each passing season.

Edwards was crowned the British Women's Motocross Champion last year, which also actually signified that she had also completed a remarkable comeback from injury.

Edwards was seriously hurt in November 2019, breaking both ankles while racing at the Marlborough championships.

She was then given heartbreaking news by her doctor: Both her ankles were broken, her racing days were over and she could even lose her left foot.

Just over a year later, in January 2021, Edwards had fully recovered and she impressed in becoming the women's champion at the 60th annual Honda New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville ... her comeback was complete.

The Covid-19 pandemic then caused all sorts of problems for sports event management worldwide, but the motocross scene is well and truly humming again after a two-year hiatus, with Edwards grateful to be able to roll her bright red Honda CRF250 to the start line once again.

The first major event on the women's racing calendar is the three-round New Zealand Women's Motocross Championships, running for the first time this year in conjunction with the latter part of the corresponding men's competition, and the opening round of the women's nationals was staged at Horohoro, near Rotorua, on Sunday.

Edwards, Hamilton's Aime Roberts and Opunake's Taylar Rampton battled ferociously at the front of the Lakes Honda-sponsored women's class on Sunday, while Australian visitor Tahlia Drew and Rotorua's home-town heroine Mel Patterson, from Rotorua, kept them honest.

Edwards topped the women's podium on Sunday, with Roberts runner-up and Rampton settling for third.

With her 1-1-2 score-line over the three women's races, Edwards was able to finish the day with a handy three-point lead over former Kiwi champion Roberts, but Edwards knows she can't afford to rest on her laurels with the final two rounds in Taupo just a month away.

"I wasn't feeling nervous about getting into the racing today ... more like super excited actually," she says.

"We haven't raced in so long.

"I'm very happy with how the day went for me here at Rotorua. I was excited to get back on the bike. Unfortunately in the last race today I came off while leading and had to fight back to get up to second and that was just enough to give me the outright win.

"I was doing everything I could to get back to the front, but I ran out of time.

"I'm hoping I can make some small gains with my riding leading up to the final two rounds in Taupo.

"The Honda was awesome and the whole Motul Honda team is awesome too. My mechanic, Darren 'Luppy' Lupton was fantastic and I never have anything to worry about with that side of things.

"I'd love to go back to England to defend my title there, but it's undecided at the moment if I can go. I've got a job to do here first anyway and hopefully win the New Zealand title first."

2023 New Zealand Women's Motocross Championships:

Round one: February 26 – Rotorua;

Rounds two and three: March 25-26 – Taupo.

-By Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com