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 achieved a well-deserved World Title in 2004.

In 2005, he 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 a year later -2006- despite achieving four victories, more than any of his rivals, he repeated the runner-up position. 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. The high level that the series reached 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 second 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 2013 overall X-Trial standings. 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 scored a total of 149 points which have given him the third overall place of the FIM Trial World Championship.

In 2014, Fujinami participated for the last time in both the Trial World Championship and the X-Trial, achieving fifth and sixth position, respectively. In the outdoor series, he got a victory in Australia in the first round of the season and a podium in his home round in Japan, with a final count of 145 points.

A year later, in the season that marked his 20th anniversary competing with Honda, he repeated the fifth place in the Trial World Championship, with podiums in Japan, Sweden and France and 192 points, improving his previous year’s results by far.

In 2016, he was again in the top 3 at the outdoor World Championship. At 36, Fuji was able to gather four podiums and a win (in France), to finish in a hard-fought third position overall. The Repsol Honda rider, who overcame several injuries in that time, was able to return on the World Championship podium after 5 years.

Last season, Fujinami signed the fifth overall position and added another two podiums to his long track record, by finishing third at his home round in Japan and second in England.