Toni Bou (Montesa Cota 4RT) won the starting event of a new edition of the X-Trial World Championship, which the Montesa rider has won during the last six years. This has been Toni Bou's victory number 30, the last 17 consecutive, in the 37 X-Trial world championship events held to date.
Leading after the five qualifying zones, which Toni Bou passed with 2 points penalty (seven less than his closest rival), the plurichampion had to work hard both in the semifinal (0 points) and in the final of this event, decided in the last of the five zones (four individual and a parallel race) which kept spectators in the Motorpoint Sheffield Arena on tenterhooks. Takahisa Fujinami (Montesa Cota 4RT) finished the qualifying lap in fifth position (12 points) and in the semi-final he obtained two points more than the maximum necessary to access the final.
Toni Bou: “It's been a perfect start to the season, in a complicated event and quite a tense night, because Albert [Cabestany] was very tough and made things extremely difficult for me. I felt at ease on the bike and I'm very satisfied with my performance, both in the semi-final and the final, in which I obtained five points in an extremely difficult second zone and another point in the fourth, to make sure. What I couldn't avoid were the nerves caused by knowing that in a championship with just five events, nobody can afford a mistake that could hang on you like a millstone in the fight for the title. But everything went perfectly and I'll be in the next event in Barcelona with the maximum of motivation”.
Takahisa Fujinami: “Very bad, as simple as that. I made some absurd mistakes both in the qualifying lap and in the semi-final. I knew what I had to do in the zones, but I wasn't able to do it. I've no doubts about my technical capacity, but I think the long time since I last participated in an indoor event has taken its toll. I'll have to put this result behind me and think positive for the future. I'm sure everything will go better in Barcelona”.