LONG
TIME
COMING
Takahisa Fujinami
endures five years of
frustration before giving
Japan its first off-road
World title since 1978
By SHAN MOORE
PHOTOS CO URTESY OF HRC ·MoNTESA
a ka h isa Fujina m i d escr ib ed 2004 as a n
unbe lievable yea r. For his tho usands of fans
around the wo rld, this year was a lo ng time
in comi ng. After five years of finishing runner up, the po pular Japanese rider finally
saw his boyhood dream of w inning the World Champ ionsh ip becom e a reality.
For five straight yea rs, Fujinami finished second in the
Wo rld Trials Championship Series , playing bridesmaid all
five years to the same ma n, Montesa teammate Dougie
Lampkin of Great Britain. W ith Spanish sensat ion Adam
Raga nipping at the ir heels, many thought Fujinami's
nine-year ru n in the seri es wo uld e nd wit hout a championsh ip and that Raga wou ld eventually inheri t
Lampkin's thro ne .
Despite the frustration, Fujinami remained undaunted in his pur suit of the tit le, and during the winter
months preceding the 2004 season , he intensified his
training regime, w ith the help of his minder and righthand man , josep Banyeres, and his trainer, Makoto
Tamada . As a result , Fujinami bettered his concentration
and riding ability in slippery cond itions, areas that had
been weak spots in the past, and claimed eight victo ries
out of a possible 14 en route to his first title.
The win was significant for Japan, as we ll , as the last
perso n to win an off-road World title from the Land of
t he Rising Sun was Akira Watanabe, w ho claimed the
12Scc Motocro ss title in 1978. Adding to Fujinami's
fantastic year was the ar rival of his first child, Yume na,
in Octob er.
Fujinami, w ho now lives year ro und in Torroella de
Mo ntgrf (Catalonia, Spain) in o rder to train with the best
in the wo rld, first appeared on the World circuit in 1996
and wa s immed iately nicknamed "FUji- Gas" by the press
because of his aggressiveness with the th rottle. T hough
he has tempered his style so mewhat over the past few
years, his passion for trials is as strong as ever.
T
To finally captu re the t itl e was a very spe cia l individual honor for you , bu t it was a lso a very s pe cial
cham pions hip for yo ur country, Ho w do es it fe el t o
w in t he c ha m pio nship ?
90
JANUAR 5, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS
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