Takahisa Fujinami

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.

In 2010 he took another step ahead in performance, achieving five podiums: two wins –Portugal and the first round in Great Britain–, one second place –France– and two third positions –In the second British round and in Italy–, which allowed him to finish for the fourth consecutive year in third position of the Outdoor World Championship overall standings, showing the high level that the series are reaching. A level that was also shown during the Indoor World Championship, where the pressure and a very restrictive new regulation left him in sixth place overall.

The following year –2011–,the Japanese rider of the Repsol Montesa Honda was fifth overall in the X-Trial (Indoor) World Championship after a crash in the second round that affected him for most of the season. In the outdoor series, the Repsol rider achieved six podiums: two second places in Andorra and Japan and four third positions –Germany, Italy, Great Britain and Japan— which allowed him to finish the World Champion in third for the fifth year in a row, only behind his team mate Toni Bou and Adam Raga.

2012 was a season with many ups and downs for Fujinami, who finished fifth in the Outdoor Trial World Championship, with 174 points and five podiums: two runner-up positions –Italy and Great Britain– and three third places –Australia, Japan and Andorra–, of the thirteen rounds held. In the X-Trial FIM World Championship, the Japanese finished fourth after achieving 3 podiums –three third places in Switzerland, Spain and France– and 69 points in seven races.

The Japanese was fifth in the overall X-Trial standings this year, where both him and his team mate Toni Bou had a new 4-stroke engine in their Montesa Cota 4RTs in the last race of the series. Of a total of five rounds, Fujinami secured two podiums: two third places in the two rounds held in Spain. Adding his three sixth positions, he achieved a total of 39 points.

In the outdoor competition, the new non-stop regulations have caused many different opinions and comments, but Takahisa Fujinami’s adaptation was good, as he went back to his winning ways in his home round in Japan. The Repsol rider achieved a total of 4 podiums: his victory in Japan, a second place in Great Britain and his third positions in the USA and Italy. After the thirteen races of the Outdoor calendar, the Japanese rider has a total of 149 which have given him the third overall place of the FIM Trial World Championship.