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Greater Shepparton City Council has announced that it has been awarded the 2021 Special Projects Initiative LGPro Award for Excellence - the program that promotes and celebrates work undertaken and delivered by local government in Victoria.

Greater Shepparton was recognised as the top initiative with its successful delivery of the UCI Supercross BMX World Cup in 2020, with the Council also nominated as a finalist for its Covid-19 Youth Campaign in the Service Delivery Category.

The stand out components of the UCI Supercross BMX World Cup, which earned its winning place according to the judges, were the ability to deliver on a vision, its ability to value add to the region through an International Cycling Event, Bikes and Bites festival, and developing a suite of innovative initiatives to help broaden visitation to the region.

The event also proved significant leadership and strong partnerships with local business, sporting associations, community groups and international organisations, and generated an impressive return of $3.47 million for the region.

Stating that the award was an amazing accomplishment, Greater Shepparton City Council Mayor, Kim O’Keeffe advised “both of these initiatives were delivered in partnership between Council and our community, and being a finalist and winner in the LGPro Awards recognises and celebrates the significance of this partnership and what we can achieve when we work together to deliver bold results.

“Based on the praise received for the event from the likes of UCI, BMX Australia, competitors and spectators it was decided to nominate this event in the LGPro Special Projects category, and obviously the judges agree that this event was a truly impressive event.”

Hosting the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup was the culmination of a near 15-year vision by Council which began in 2008 when the city engaged the services of international renowned BMX track Builder Tom Ritzenhaler, who constructed the first ever Olympic BMX track for the 2008 Beijing Games, to build a new Shepparton BMX Track.

Since then the city has continued to grow its BMX reputation, hosting a number of international, national and state events, building an impressive reputation as one of the best facilities in the country.

Council’s Manager Economic Development Anthony Nicolaci said this award could not have been achieved without the support of all the amazing event partners, going on to say “this was truly a team effort and we would like to acknowledge the UCI, BMX Australia and Cycling Australia (now AusCycle), o2 Events, the wonderful volunteers of the Shepparton BMX Club, our Greater Shepparton event services and supplier businesses and our funding partners the Australian Government via the Building Better Regions Fund and the Victorian Government via the Visit Victoria Regional Events Fund and Sport and Recreation Victoria’s Significant Sporting Event Fund and Shepparton Show Me for all their support to make this event so memorable in Greater Shepparton.

“Hosting prestigious events like this further enhances the region’s growing reputation as regional Australia’s event capital, as well as injecting much needed economic stimulus to the visitor economy across accommodation, retail, hospitality, event suppliers and tourism attraction sectors.”

The Council will now be hosting the 2021 State BMX Series in April, the Victorian BMX State Championships in October and the Australian BMX Championships in 2023.

Images of Greater Shepparton’s hosting of the UCI Supercross BMX World Cup courtesy of Greater Shepparton City Council.

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