A nasty spill on the rugged track at Coney Island during Saturday's practice outing wasn't enough to deter Sean DeSilva from motocross racing.

If the Bermuda Auto Cycle Union ever offer a tough guy award the beneficiary will have to be this young rider.

Despite suffering a broken right wrist and a broken left middle finger when he went down at the bottom of Devil's Drop, the 12-year-old Mount Saint Agnes student came back with a vengeance on Sunday, the very next day, to battle the course once again and take on challengers in the 80cc class.

Shrugging off obvious pain from his injuries, onlookers marvelled as the young rider persevered in his quest for glory and still proved to be a formidable opponent despite the pain. He stayed with the pack in most of the races and completed the day with a fourth place finish and two fifths.

One observer, Bermuda Auto Cycle Union president Ras Mykkal, observed: "He was a real battler, determined to prove that he was going to compete despite his injuries.'' DeSilva said that he had no real discomfort while racing, insisting that when he was focusing on the tough bumps and the tricky track he had no time to worry about his physical problems. "It wasn't that uncomfortable really. With the adrenalin pumping me up I didn't have time to worry about anything other than what was going on in the race. I thought I ended up doing pretty good, the fall on the previous day didn't discourage me at all,'' said DeSilva. This is his third year in motocross and DeSilva doesn't hide the fact that he has fallen in love with the sport, admitting that it has surpassed soccer as his favourite pastime.

Motocross racing appears to be in the blood because his two brothers, 15-year-old Jason and seven-year-old Brandon, are also great lovers of the sport. Jason rides a 125cc and Brandon a 50cc.

The trio got hooked on the sport after going to Coney Island with their father Stephen.

Sean and his brothers will miss the next round of racing because they will be spending Christmas skiing in Quebec, but they will be back on the scene for the December 31 programme. "My casts should be off by then and I should be ready and raring to go,'' said Sean.

TOUGH GUY SEAN -- Broken bones failed to keep him off the motocross track.