Czech Stunt Days 2018
This year, Czech Stunt Days can truly be called a stunt riding world championship. Riders from Europe, Russia, Brazil, Japan, and Indonesia gathered together to take part in the competition, but the most important thing was that for the first time in many years, all the top riders showed up: Mike Jensen, Marcin Glowacki, Rafal Kanik, Pawel Karbownik, Joona Vatanen, and Romain Jeandrot. The competition was very tight not only for the prize, but also for making it into the TOP 10. Of course, Sarah Lezito, who came to fight for a good position, attracted special attention.
The tournament lasted three days due to the large number of participants: qualifying (top 30), semi-final (top 15) and final. The points of the semi-final and the final were not summed up, so the winner was determined by the results of the final alone. Such a format implied full engagement and high competition at each stage. No one could get a handicap, and everyone was forced to go 100% in the final. As a result, there were a lot of crashes and mistakes:
The day before the tournament, Romain Jeandrot broke his gearbox in practice and couldn't compete. Joona Vatanen injured his wrist but still came to the Czech Republic, hoping to perform on painkillers. After several training sessions, Joona decided not to take risks and pulled out, leaving only four contenders for the win.
Qualifying went smoothly, without surprises. Young Russian rider Foma Kalinin (16 y.o.) was second and seemed like a real contender for prizes. Marcin and Rafal were stable, Mike and Pawel did 50%, but it was more than enough. Sarah Lezito’s run surprised everyone when she continued her high-level performance despite her crash, making it clear that many men would be left far behind. Everyone got nervous, especially Pakus, because he was close to her in the standings. Sarah rode well during the whole tournament and took 9th place.
Mike Jensen became the champion with revolutionary stunt riding. Mike has changed his program almost completely, adding wide and fast powers, including the one in frogger with out, super fast baldini, and increased the pace greatly. A champion's performance, and perhaps the end of the era of slow technical stunts. Mike's freestyle was very complex and very technical, while still being fast and dynamic. He touched the asphalt in the kangaroo 360 and dead spin, but these weren't serious mistakes, as he completed the tricks 100%.
Marcin Glowacki was first after the semi-final, but in the final he crashed on a highchair kangaroo and didn't do the 270 stoppie. This year he also added kangaroo 360, but overall the program remained the same: difficult, with very fast transitions and position changes, technical, but sometimes slow and too compact, which was especially noticeable on a large spot in Ostrava. It was his first time at Czech Stunt Day.
Third place went to Pawel Karbownik with a super complex freestyle, which he has never performed without mistakes, but that made it even more exciting to watch. Pawel did a coaster in a highchair figure 8, thereby moving the usual highchair figure 8 into the category of medium-difficulty stunts. Amplitude jumps and half-powers on the tank look fast and dynamic, switchback drifts, wheelie and headstand burnout with limiter look incredible. Unfortunately, the kangaroo 360 didn't work out, but his gymnastic element on the wheel was memorable.
Rafal Kanik rode cleanly and got close, but missed the podium. He didn't change last year’s program, which the judges probably didn't appreciate.
Foma Kalinin burned out and made a lot of mistakes in the final, so he ended up in 6th place. Denis Rybalko from Russia had a great final run with an awesome 100% tsunami, whip 360, good acrobatics and stoppies, fast wheelies and drifts, and took 5th place, the best result in the history of Russian stunt riding.
Best stunts compilation from qualifying, the semi-final and the final, and our version of the TOP 10:
Next year, the tournament promises to be more interesting: Joona will raise the bar for everyone, Glowacki will come for revenge, Jensen will show something new as always, Jeandrot cannot miss another big tournament, Kanik is eager to win, and Karbownik wants to finally show his style 100%.