2007 Indoor World Trial Championship Round 5

Campo Pequeno, Lisbon Portugal - 10/2/2007 - Attendance: 8,000

Painful ride to miss the Final

Six days after Fujinami scoring the 'well-done' result in Barcelona, IWTC arrived at the east edge of the European continent, Lisbon Portugal. The section materials were brought from Spain for the event, so it was like another Spanish trial round, where Spaniards are very much familiar with.

Having been the last starter at the previous round, Fuji in turn was the first fix rider to start in Portugal. The severity of the opening section was very high, which many found it impossible when they inspected. Fuji fived so as Morris and Fajardo, in fact all the riders dropped the maximum penalty points except Bou, who succeeded to ride away with a single point. Not an ideal start but it did not hurt Fuji's spirit so much, and he went on to mark two cleans at the following sections.

There was a jump off from the height of about two meters at the section four. It required the riders to land from the rear wheel with the front end sticking up high in the air. When landed, Fuji felt the fire on his foot. It was so painful that he had to stop in the section for a moment. He started again, but when he had to do another jump off later in the section, he couldn't stand the pain anymore. He got off the bike to five the section.

From then on, Fuji had to ride with a big pain till the end of the lap. He made some small mistakes here and there - which of course was understandable - and built up the penalty points. He had the third five at the end of his observed section to finish with 17 points. Fuji was fourth, two points down from Cabestany, with Bou and Raga still in a severe battle for the top position with six and seven points, respectively.

Fuji had a slim chance for the Final Lap with only the Double-Lane to go, but by then, he didn't have anymore strength left to beat the Spaniard. Fuji eventually won the DL, but it was because the Spaniard took it safely to avoid unnecessary mistake for the Final. Fuji's day was over, but he was glad to finish so that he could rest his foot.

At the Final Lap, the Montesa team-mate, Bou repeated his success from the previous round to win by four points against Raga. Having Cabestany finished third in Portugal, the gap between the Spaniard and Fuji became two in the point standing, in which Fuji still stands at the fourth place.

Fuji suffers a growing pain on his foot after the event. So the first thing he did when he returned to Barcelona was to see the doctor, whom Fuji has been seeing since his last year's injury. There is no fracture with the bone found by the X-ray, but it appears that Fuji has some ligament damaged on his ankle. The doctor advised him to have a good rest with his foot. It happened to be the part that he has injured many times in the past, but it is the good news that injury is not too serious that Fuji's indoor challenge will not be affected. He decided to cancel his appearance at the indoor event before the next round. He thinks he will be doing any practice riding in the interval to have the maximum recovery for the next round in Milan.

Quote from Fujigas:

I was looking forward to have the good result in Portugal, because it was an interesting event at the bullring, and I felt well too. Instead, I got injured. It swelled up a lot after the event. The doctor said there was no fracture so that was at least the good news for me. It is the same area that I suffered a chip fracture before, so I need to take a good care of it. I know the doctor since last year, so I have no worry. I am not sure if I can ride before the Milan event, so, I will be a good boy to give it a good rest till then.

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