‘Fujigas’, the charismatic Japanese rider of the Repsol Honda Team, will put an end to his very long sporting career with the last race of the TrialGP World Championship to be held in Gouveia this Saturday.
After 26 seasons in the Trial World Championship, a record number of participations with 168 podiums, 34 victories, seven runners-up finishes and a championship title, Repsol Honda Team rider Takahisa Fujinami (Mie, Japan, 13/01/1980) will close his sporting career this coming Saturday in Portugal.
Since his debut in Navacerrada, Spain, in 1996, at the age of 16, he has spent more than a quarter of a century fully dedicated to trial competition, highlighting several successes, such as the world crown won in 2004.
In addition, the Japanese rider also accumulates different records in the specialty, such as the youngest driver to win a World Championship event (Talheim, 1997), at the age of 17, or even the oldest: this same 2021 he won in Italy at the age of 41. Precisely, his longevity has led him to be the rider with the highest number of participations in the top competition: 355 with which he will compete this Saturday in Gouveia.
"Fujinami has competed for 26 seasons in the Trial World Championship, a record of participations with 168 podiums, 34 wins, seven runners-up and one championship title."
With 34 victories, and always with Montesa-Honda, Takahisa Fujinami is the fifth rider with the highest number of victories in world championship races and the fourth in number of podiums, only surpassed by Adam Raga, Toni Bou and Dougie Lampkin. In addition, he has finished in the top five of the world championship in 20 consecutive seasons.
‘Fujigas’ has also been runner-up in the World Championship for 7 years. To all this, we must add his participation in indoor competitions: 1 runner-up, 1 victory and 36 podiums in 139 races.
In Japan, he won 5 national titles between 1995 and 2001. To conclude, with his 15 participations in the Trial of Nations with the Japanese team, he has helped to finish runner-up on five occasions.
The last race of the TrialGP World Championship, this Saturday
The last race of the 2021 TrialGP World Championship will be held in Gouveia this coming Saturday. This event replaces the cancelled event that was scheduled to be held at the beginning of October in Great Britain.
Toni Bou is the big favourite to be crowned World Champion again after his one-two finish last weekend at the Spanish TrialGP. Bou only needs to score a point next Saturday to be crowned 2021 TrialGP champion. It will be his 15th consecutive title and the 29th of his career in the top competition. After last weekend’s event in Pobladura de las Regueras, the Repsol Honda Team rider has everything in his sights set to continue his dominance and that of the Montesa Cota 4RT in the World Championship.
The race will be held in the urban area of the Portuguese town, where the twelve zones will be located, which must be overcome twice to complete the set route. The race is expected to end at 3:00 p.m. (local) and then proceed to the podium ceremony, which will include the awarding of championship medals.
