Josh Sheehan wins fifth and sixth round of 2011 FIM Freestyle MX Championships
The fifth and sixth round of 2011 International Motorcyclist Federation (FIM) Freestyle Motocross (MX) Championships went down at the Saint Jakobshalle arena in Basel, Switzerland, this weekend. On both the nights, Australia’s Josh Sheehan managed to secure
the highest spot on the podium.
The fifth round on Friday saw Czech Republic’s Libor Podmol finish in the second place while Chile’s Javier Villegas rounded out the podium. In the sixth round on Saturday, Villegas moved one place higher on the podium, while Spain’s Jose Miralles finished
in third place to take the third spot.
Talking to the media after his Saturday win, the 25-year-old Sheehan said, “This is my first year competing in Europe and these are my first wins for the FIM championship, so I'm super pumped. I came over here knowing the level of riding was high and it
would be hard to break in against these guys, but I've been exceeding my own expectations.”
For someone who was a rookie in the FIM series, the weekend had turned out to be dreamlike. He dominated the competition on both the nights with tricks like the flit-spin 360 heel clicker. This was the ideal start for someone who had missed out on the first
two stops of the series last month in Berlin, Germany, leading to a serious point-deficit. The two wins have allowed him to move up to eighth place in the overall standings with 40 points.
Villegas, who has no reason to feel disappointed with his third and second-place finishes over the weekend, replaced France’s Remi Bizouard as the overall leader in the FIM series. He now has 86 points against Bizouard’s 82. He failed to make it to the podium
on both nights in Basel, finishing in fourth place in both the rounds.
Miralles, who finished fifth in the fifth round and third in sixth now sits in third place in the overall series standings with 78 points.
The Czech rider, Podmol, kicked off his weekend with a good start, finishing in second place in the fifth round and moved to fourth place in the FIM’s overall standings this year with 58 points. However, he was unable to compete in the next round after ending
up in an accident just a few hours before the contest. He ended up breaking several ribs and puncturing his lungs after landing hard over his handlebars.
Talking about the Czech’s unfortunate accident and absence from the sixth round, Sheehan said, “I've heard that he's stable and that they're operating on him tonight. It always sucks to see a great competitor go down.”
Podmol had been hoping to make a strong impact at the upcoming X Games 17 in Los Angeles. Hopefully he will be able to recover and make it back before the mega-event of action sports gets underway in July.
With the conclusion of the fifth and sixth rounds, the 2011 FIM Freestyle MX Championship series still has eight more rounds to go.
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