Toni Bou this Saturday revalidated his title of World Indoor Trials Champion, a success which he stamped his signature on with a victory in the fifth and last test for points, disputed at the Palacio de Deportes, in Madrid. After sentencing the championship in the previous test, the Repsol rider just needed to take the start in this last test of the World Championship in order to get the point that gave him the top prize.
However, Toni Bou wanted to round off the Championship with a further victory, a goal obvious to all starting with the qualifying lap, which he finished in the lead and with only five penalty points. And in the final lap, the Champion gave the others no options, winning in the Spanish capital for the first time. Toni Bou finished the World Championship with 48 of the 50 possible points after four victories (Marseille, Granada, Milan and Madrid) and a second position (Barcelona).
Born on 17th October 1986 and living in Piera (Barcelona), Bou took his first Title as a trials rider at the age of 13 (Catalonian Cadet Champion), which was followed by the Spanish Junior Championship (2001), the European Cup for young riders (2002), the European Championship (2003) and the overall Spanish Champion (2006). In 2007 he joined the Repsol Montesa-HRC team, conquering that same year the World Indoor and Outdoor Titles, the Spanish Indoor, and his third victory, all in a row, as a member of the Spanish Trial des Nations team.
Repsol rider Takahisa Fujinami was very close to making it to the final again, but a mistake at the high jump cost him three points and what would have been his third consecutive podium.
Toni Bou
“Such a short championship as this one, with only five tests, puts you under a lot of pressure, because any loss of points is very hard to recover. I think that the key to the title was my victory in Granada. I had just finished second in Barcelona and had a bad fall which even made me fear I wouldn’t be able to continue. I got over it, summoned all my strength, and in spite of competing with a split eyebrow I managed to win and increase my advantage leading the classification. If I were to take stock of the results, I think I couldn’t ask for more with four out of five possible victories.The team has undoubtedly done an extraordinary job. Now we’re going to concentrate on the World Outdoor Championship, which starts in two weeks’ time and where we will have to defend the title with all our strength.”
Takahisa Fujinami
“I wanted to say farewell to the championship from the podium, sharing the celebrations with Toni. It could not be, I made a mistake in calculation and was left out of the final. I’ve finished the Championship with satisfactory results which I hope to improve in the World Outdoor Championship.”
