Donaldson (11), a year 6 pupil at Kaikorai Primary School, is heading for Australia next month to compete in the Mighty XI transtasman BMX test match.
Fresh off winning a national junior title at Easter, Donaldson is the first Dunedin girl selected for the New Zealand team to take on the Australians at a track in Liverpool, just out of Sydney.
Hamish Burrow, from Dunedin, made the side a couple of years ago.
Donaldson has been to Australia before, picking up a bronze medal at the world BMX championships in Adelaide a couple of years ago.
She first started in the sport about four years ago when her family just lived down the road from a BMX track in Invercargill. She went along for a ride, was seen to be a natural and has never looked back.
Father Greg Donaldson said she loved to compete, although he was keen to get some sponsorship as BMX was still a minority sport and struggled to get funds.
The Mighty XI is a team racing event that came about after a BMX rider was killed in Ipswich,Queensland, in the early 1990s.
His family donated a trophy and it was decided to hold an invitation meeting for a junior class.
It grew into an annual exchange between New Zealand and Australian riders, who have to be aged 11 on the day of the race.
