Takahisa Fujinami

Takahisa Fujinami

Date of birth: 13/01/1980 Birthplace: Mie – Mie – Japan Weight: 68 kg Height: 171 cm Hobbies: Music & Tennis Nacionality: Japanese Years as Repsol rider: 10 (Incluiding 2013)

Honours

First race: Trial de España 1996
First podium finish: Trial de San Marino 1997
First victory: Trial de Alemania 1997
Wins: 21
Titles: 1

Sporting career

Biography

The World Championship title in 2004 was the well-deserved reward to the tenacity and talent of Takahisa Fujinami, who after dominating Japan’s national championships took the leap to the World Championship to achieve international success.

The Repsol rider has participated in all specialities, so he has balanced on anything with two wheels. Before starting with motorbike trial and be Japan’s class B runner-up at 13, he was bicycle trial World Champion. Since he was very young and in any speciality, the Japanese rider showed extraordinary capabilities that allowed him to rise very quickly, with a fantastic track record since his first title in Japan in 1995.

His first great result in the World Championship was a seventh place in 1996. A year later, he jumped to the fourth position. The runner-up place in 2000 confirmed him as one of the great riders. Completely adapted to European and Spanish life, this Japanese of the eternal smile was able to develop his capabilities and repeated the runner-up place two years, in the shadow of the untouchable Doug Lampkin. The fact to meet in several competitions and be later team mate of the British star allowed him to improve his capacity and ambition until he achieving a well-deserved world title in 2004.

In 2005, the title was for Adam Raga and Fujinami signed a second position in the championship, ahead of his team mate and seven times World Champion Doug Lampkin. During that Indoor season the Montesa Cota 4RTs with 4-stroke engine had their debut and with them a year later -2006- despite achieving four victories, more than any of his rivals, he repeated the runner-up position again. In 2007 he finished fourth in the Trial Indoor World Championship and third in the outdoor competition. He obtained the same results both in 2008 and 2009, in which he gathered 27 podiums -5 Indoor and 22 outdoor- and a victory in the United States in 2008.

This season he took another step ahead in performance, taking two victories and three more podiums that made him finish the World Championship in third position for the fourth consecutive year, due to the great level that the speciality is achieving. A level that showed at the Indoor World Championship, where the pressure and very restrictive rules demoted him to the final sixth position.

The following year he kept up his success, recording two wins and a further three podiums which took him bronze in the overall standings for a fourth consecutive year. His consistency is particularly impressive considering the high level of talent in the World Championship and some restrictive new regulations for the Indoor series.

The Repsol Montesa Honda rider placed fifth in the X-Trial World Championship (Indoor) last season after suffering a big crash in the second race of the year. Outdoors, he picked up two second places –in Andorra and Japan- plus an additional four podiums in Germany, Italy, Great Britain and Japan. This took him to third place in the standings for the fifth consecutive season, behind teammate Toni Bou and close rival Adam Raga.