Czech Stunt Days 2019
Traditionally, the world championship in stunt riding was held in Ostrava, in mid-August. The biggest international competition of the season, the best riders, high compete level, a large audience. This year, the organizers have changed the rules, so that the winner is determined not by the results of the final races, but by the sum of points of the semifinal and final.
The contenders for the prizes are the same as last year: Jensen, Glowacki, Vatanen, Kalinin, Karbownik, Kanik.
The champion, once again, was the most experienced and most titled rider of our time - Marcin Glowacki. Two tight dynamic races without serious mistakes left no chance to competitors who lagged far behind after the semifinal. This year, Marcin has added an out from the powers, which has become a necessary base element during the last couple of years, removed the kangaroo highchair, on which he stumbled last year. Marcin slightly rebuilt freestyle, still remaining one of the fastest riders with the highest density of tricks in freestyle. Professional approach and welldeserved result.
Foma Kalinin rode bad in the semifinals, but in the final he showed the best freestyle of the season with many complex innovative tricks. We first saw the power eight with a jump out of frog to HC with the shift of directions, the coaster in the HC powers, Watchtower Flamingo. Also, Foma has added a new shaffle 360°. In addition there were the kangaroo 360° with the transition to the spreader, the Flamingo kangaroo 360 - resulting three 360° tricks in one freestyle, which is also unprecedented. Foma’s ride became a logical and very rapid development of the new school, in which the tricks in the usual slow circles shift into high-speed power mode. Super complex set of tricks at high speed looks impressive and sometimes scary.
Joona Vatanen performs on CBR1000RR last season. From the Finn we’ve been waiting for the perfect ride which would become history. And so it happened, but with a few mistakes. Already an icon of style, Joona, beautifully and adequately completed the most successful stage in his career, taking the third place. On CBR1000RR he became not only the fastest and most aggressive, but also one of the best in the world prorider and the best in 1000cc class. He opened a new Chapter in the sport, showing that speed can be not only spectacular but technikal. Power curves in highchairs with outs, fast stoppies with long rides, crazy slides and drift the furious finn will show next season on the BMW S1000RR.
For Mike Jensen this tournament was the first on the new motorcycle Kawasaki ZX636 2014. After many years of performances and victories on the CBR600F4i the last two years is very risky to change the motorcycle for the world Cup. Falls in the final and semi final did not allow to take prizes, but the potential was obvious. Mike became faster, and doesn’t loose Vatanen, and, as always, added interesting elements: impressive NASCAR circles at a highest speed, power spreader with out, which has wide amplitude in execution of the tall rider. Shuffle 360 didn't occur, but it was at the training. Standard Mike's tricks are now much more dynamic: kangaroo 360 looks suicidal, a bunch of drifts with tornadoes, side to side moves, curves is very wide, fast in critical angle leans, the technique in circles has amplitude and speed. In general, Jensen continues to improve his style: he accelerates even more, performs 100%, adds new tricks, perfectly combines technique and show. Next year we hope to see the full potential of the Dane.
Denis Rybalko was very close to the third place in the world championship, the gap between him and Mike was negligible as a result. Nevertheless, Den showed top freestyle and noticeable progress, left behind experienced titled riders and repeated last year's result, but in a tougher competition this time. Denis improves his style with a smooth continuous flow, goes faster and wider, adds power curves with out, wheelie slalom, bunny-kangaroo, tornado drift. The final was the best run in the career of the Russian rider.
Pawel Karbownik was not ready for the tournament, was unable to repeat his last year's freestyle.He was one of the favorites of World Championship, but he did not perform his super complex freestyle well neither in the semi-final nor in the final. Polish rider is one of the most technical and stylish stunt rider in the world. In Ostrava he pushed the limit in the switchback brunch: track stand - one hand drift - wheelie. But highchair stoppies and kangaroo did not work out and he made mistake at super trick highchair coaster eight: the muffler fell off. The result is 6th place, which is bad for eminent and titled polish rider.
Martin Kratky surprised. After a serious knee injury, on a new motorcycle, no one expected him to be high-level, but in the semifinals Martin showed his best freestyle at high speed, with virtually no mistakes. Martin became the Champion of Czech Republic, because he had the best result of all czech stunt riders.
Rafal Kanik, unfortunately, for the second year almost does not update the program. The result is 8th place, but the final run was clean and well done.
Paulius Labanauskas was in a good shape and had great freestyle, but too complex and risky. This is his semi-final run, which was the best. Paulius included three risky 360 tricks (kangaroo, whip, bunny), non of them was perfect, but he did not make serious mistake. Also, he made high chair power curve with out, which is great modern stunt. In total, the run was dynamic, diverse, sometimes risky.
The top ten is closed by Dawid Olczyk, who had good final run overtaking Sarah Lezito and Diego Christian Mafra. Polish rider made great drifts, stoppies and risky tornado frogger as best trick.
We could not fail to show you the run of the great French prorider Sarah Lezito, who competes on a par with men. This time Sarah made it to the final and got 12th place. Sarah added some interesting dynamic series, showed great stoppies and drifts, switchback stunts. We did not see watchtower, with which she could hit the top 10, as in the previous year. Sarah is still the world's best girl stunt rider and unique athlete. In the future, we are waiting for her performances on the new motorcycle ZX636.
TOP10 most innovative and unique tricks from championship:
Best Stunts and crashes from qualification, semi-final and final:
We had time to shoot interesting wheelie race contest.
As a result, I would like to notice the excellent organization, the highest level of stunt riding and a great atmosphere. We did not like the refereeing with summation of points, because the main intrigue unfolded in the semi-final, and the final was not so spectacular. We hope to visite the Czech Republic again next year and we advise everyone to visit this tournament.