25/4/2004
2004 Spanish Outdoor Trial Championship Round 3 Osuna, Spain

Round 3 of Spanish Outdoor Championship was held at Osuna Sevilla, and Fujinami finished 6th.

Originally Fuji looked at the series for his quest for the championship, but he lost his goal when they revised the regulation and non-Spanish riders became ineligible for taking the title. Still, having a lot of world's best riders participate in the series, it provides a good training ground for the world championship series.

However sections was easy and didn't give much of challenge for the top riders this year. There were lots of dry rocks resembling in-door event, it looked to be favor of local riders too. Fuji focused on mental training, trying to grip his psychological state in various situations.

Fuji felt good in the event, but he scored 17 points: 2 fives and 7 one. Both fives came from the section 13, which happened to be the only difficult section of the round with multiple steps. Number of riders failed, and Cabestany fived in both laps too. But Raga, Lampkin and Freixa managed to score clean on one of laps, and they built some cushion.

It was no surprise to score clean at the rests of the sections, and in fact Raga managed to finish lap1 with a single penalty. Fuji scored one point at section 9 on both laps in order to save him from scoring five, but there were 5 more penalty points he had which puzzled him. The Body or foot on the peg might have touched the rock momentarily or not, but it was hard to believe adding points in a way. Fuji remembered he was in Spain.

Scoring 10 points, Raga managed to win the round. He was followed by Lampkin (12 points) with Cabestany (14 points) for 3rd. Fajardo and Freixa also scored 14 points, and they finished 4th and 5th respectively. Fuji had to settle for 6th position with disappointing 17 points.

Fuji decided to miss round 4 of Spanish championship, because there is a big event coming up for Fuji only a week away, Japanese round. At this point it is uncertain if Fuji would participate in round 5 and later of Spanish rounds, for world championship would be finished by the time of the the 5th round.

Quote from Fujigas:
It was a disappointing result. Apart from the mistakes I made there were mysterious penalties too. Sections were easy and I didn't have a chance to recover. But I think that if I rode better I wouldn't have scored such questionable points either. I've been practicing a lot at slippery condition and I am very confident with it, but I think I need to work on some dry surface too. I don't like people to think that dry rocks are Spanish specialty. I will take a break for preparing for my homecoming round of the season at Motegi, and I am looking forward to it.

2004 Spanish Outdoor Trial Championship
Round 3 Osuna, Spain
Final Lap
1. Adam Raga 10 (9+1) 25
2. Doug Lampkin 12 (6+6) 26
3. Albert Cabestany 14 (8+5+1) 25
4. Jeroni Fajardo 14 (8+6) 24
5. Marc Freixa 14 (10+4) 20
6. Takahisa Fujinami 17 (9+8) 21
Ranking
1. Adam Raga 53
2. Doug Lampkin 48
3. Marc Freixa 43
4. Albert Cabestany 43
5. Takahisa Fujinami 39
6. Jeroni Fajardo 30

Pix: Joan Carles Vazquez Click for the Official Results PDF
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