2009 Spanish Championship Round 1

Trial Ciutat d'Eivissa, Ibiza - 22/3/2009

A Good Sign with a Victory in Spain

photoCurrently, Fujinami's trial activity is limited to the world championship events. His priority is on the Outdoor championship, then the Indoor and Trial des Nation. They are his official games to participate.

The Spanish Championship is open for foreign participants though the championship point will not be given. In the past, Fujinami took part in the some of the rounds when asked by the team. But lately, he decide whether he participates or not by considering his condition. It gives him a chance to have a intense training as there are many usual rivals in the world championship participating the event.

The rules in the championship has altered last year. Inspection is only allowed on Saturday, and the competitors can not enter the sections to check them on Sunday. There are three time-controls, thus riders can not spend too much time at some particular sections. Furthermore, they ride twice at each section. The result shows like there are two laps of 15 sections, but there are one lap of 30 rides with 15 sections.

The starting order was based on the previous year's performance, and dividing them into groups of three riders. The group of the riders with higher records started earlier, and the lowest record holder started first within each groups. There were nine riders participated in TR1 class, thus three groups. The starting order was, Cabestany, Raga, Bou, Freixa, Oliveras, Fajardo, Peydro, Gomez, then Fujinami.

photoIn the past, Fujinami always was the first rider when participating in the Spanish series due to his luck of records, which was one of his disadvantages. He was the last rider to start this time, but it wasn't a good place to start either, because he was too far from the group of top riders to gather information from their riding. When the competition got started, Fujinami rode quickly trying to catch up the top guys. It wasn't an easy job for him because there were 10 minutes gap between him and the group of Fajardo, and 30 minutes to the group of Bou. However, Fujinami managed to catch up the group of Fajardo at the section four, and he caught up the group of Bou at the section 13.

Riders had 3 hours and 30 minutes to ride two sets of 15 sections. Time allowance was much shorter than the regular world championship, even though it was one lap competition . After a hard effort of catching up, Fujinami finished his ride within 3 hours though.

Because of short time, there was no time to take a break. Sections were set up with the seaside rocks with lots of grooves requiring the riders to do hopping when changing direction. It was tough for everybody, which saw many arm pumps. It was tough for Fujinami too, especially he was still recovering from the elbow injury. Outdoor competition is longer than they are in Indoor, so it was a very difficult fight for the Montesa rider having such tough sections.

Fujinami fought strong. The result sheet shows all clean could be possible, but the sections were severer than the paper indicates. There were many chances to end up with full mark errors, although when the riders succeeded they rode without any penalty point.

photoFujinami dropped first point at the section six. He footed once at the top of the section as he had too much momentum after climbing up the huge rock. He dropped another and his last point at the section 11 when his rear wheel hit a rock and lost the balance when changing direction by hopping. Although the finishing point tells us that it was a close battle, because of the difference in characteristic of the mistakes comparing to Bou and Raga's, Fujinami's riding on that day was superior to the rivals. It was one of so-called the perfect victories for the Montesa rider.

Fujinami has won the Spanish championship round once in the past. It was in 2003 in Majorca when he rode all cleans. It was the event saw no top class Spanish riders, as they were in a conflict against the association in Spain. Montesa team was the only factory team that participated, and naturally they finished convincing 1-2-3. So it was the second time for Fujinami to take the victory at the Spanish championship, but this one he could enjoy more and made him confident for the season to come very soon.

Quote from Fujigas:

I think the rules of the Spanish championship is great, which I believe the world championship will adapt them in the future. Still, the time allowance was so severe and the sections were very long too. It was a very tough trial for the all the competitors. It turned out we had close battles as point wise, but I feel very positive because the contents of the penalty points were different from the other riders. I am now confident to enter the world championship to have some good fights against Toni and Adam. I look forward to the battle in Ireland.

2009 Spanish Championship
Round 1 - Trial Ciutat d'Eivissa, Ibiza
Classification TR1
1 Takahisa Fujinami Repsol Montesa HRC 2
2 Toni Bou Repsol Montesa HRC 3
3 Adam Raga Gas Gas 4
4 Jeroni Fajardo Beta 11
5 Albert Cabestany Sherco 29
6 arc Freixa M Gas Gas 53
7 Alfredo Gomez Montesa 68
8 Daniel Oliveras Gas Gas 73
R. Ivan Peydro Gas Gas