2011 X-Trial World Trial Championship Round5

Palacio de los Deportes, Madrid Spain - 12/3/2011

Missed the Final by One Point

photoThe round five of X-Trial 2011 took place in Madrid, a day after a series of huge earthquakes hit Japan. Fujinami brought helmets with a special livery, two flags of Catalunya and Japan; his home in Spain and his home country. He displayed it to the camera appealing and praying for Japan's strong recovery.

Fujinami was luckless in the drawing for the starting order to pick the second lot among the top four riders. He would then start third after Gomez, the wild-card rider, and Brown. Gomez managed to ride with two points at the first section but fived at the rest of the sections except at the section5, where everybody eventually marked clean. He also suffered one time penalty point. Brown marked clean at the section1, then he dropped two points at the section2. But he followed the foot steps of the first rider from the section3 to 6.

As preparing for his ride, Fujinami could not see Brown's riding. He could see Gomez's riding, but it was not very informative for his ride. Fujinami marked clean at the first section but failed at the following three sections. The section2 was particularly difficult, where Bou later made an intensional footing to ride with a single point. Fujinami at his ride was aiming for a clean. He jumped onto the rock from the hume pipe, trying not to foot, but he fell down to five.

There were six sections in Madrid to meet riders' demands claiming that the qualification with only four sections was too much unforgiving. They were glad to have two more sections, however, the allotted time - six minutes - was unchanged. The proceedings became hectic for the riders instead. There was an intermission in the Qualification when all the riders completed first four sections to wait for the start of the TV coverage, too. The riders re-started for the last two sections, but it was difficult for the competitors to keep concentration.

As the four sections were over, it was Bou, who led the field with a single point followed by Raga and Fajardo sharing second with five points. Cabestany was next with seven points, then Challoner and Brown followed with 12 points, respectively. Fujinami was even eighth with Dabil. Things did not look so good for the Japanese before going into the later part of the Qualification.

photoThe section5 was cleanable for everybody. That left the final section to be decisive challenge for Challoner, Brown, Dabil and Fujinami for the remaining two seats for the Semi-Final. Challoner marked clean kept his points unchanged. Dabil fived. Brown also fived but he suffered two time penalty points in addition. Fujinami rode with a clean to complete his qualification with 15 points. He finished sixth in front of Brown and Dabil to grab the ticket for the Semi-Final at last.

Fujinami raced against Challoner at the first Double Lane in the Semi-Final, and won it.
UK rider fought hard to be fifth at the Qualification, but he was riding with a wrist injury, which he suffered at the Indoor event in France a week earlier. There were four observed sections to compete. The first section was a cleanable for everybody, but at the section2 in turn, everybody including Bou fived. At the section3, Fujinami rode with three points with two time penalty points, same as making a full mark failure. Challoner also dropped five points at the section, but Cabestany and Fajardo both rode with two points with a single time penalty point. At the final section, everybody except Bou and Raga fived at the section4, so the point gap stayed the same for everybody. Fujinami could not turn things around to finish the day by being fifth with 15 points.

Bou, Raga, Cabestany and Fajardo proceeded to the Final. At one point, Fujinami was close to lose the chance to proceed to the Semi-Final. In the end, he lost the chance to the Final by just one point. Fujinami extremely disappointed.

Meanwhile, Toni Bou, the team-mate of Fujinami, took the fifth victory in Madrid to clinch the world title of X-Trial 2011.

Quote from Fujigas:

I know my riding was good, so it was disappointing results. At the section4 of the Semi-Final, I went through the difficult areas, but I made a mistake hitting the engine under-guard to fall down. Toni was well aware of taking the title in Madrid, and he calculated to know that he only needed to finish better than Cabestany. The results show that he was the competitor. He wanted to run the tables in the season rather than taking the title defensively.

2011 X-Trial World Trial Championship
Round5 Madrid, Spain
Final Lap
1 Toni Bou Repsol Montesa Honda 7+0+0=13
2 Adam Raga Gas Gas 9+1+9=19
3 Albert Cabestany Sherco 13+2+10=25
4 Jeroni Fajardo Ossa 14+3+10=27
5 Takahisa Fujinami Repsol Montesa Honda 15
6 Jack Challoner Beta 16
Qualificarion Lap
1 Toni Bou Repsol Montesa Honda 1+0=1
2 Adam Raga Gas Gas 5+0=5<+0>
3 Jeroni Fajardo Ossa 5+0=5<+1>
4 Albert Cabestany Sherco 7+1=8
5 Jack Challoner Beta 12+2=14
6 Takahisa Fujinami Repsol Montesa Honda 15+0=15
7 Micheal Brown Gas Gas 17+2=19
8 James Dabill Beta 20+0=20
9 Alfredo Gomez Montesa 22+1=23
-Tie Break for 2nd vs 3rd
PointStandings
1 Toni Bou 100
2 Albert Cabestany 69
3 Adam Raga 63
4 Jeroni Fajardo 45
5 Takahisa Fujinami 32
6 Jack Challoner 21