Adam Raga finishes third in Sheffield.
Adam Raga maintained his lead in the 2003 Indoor World Trials Chapionship with a third place in Sheffield. Dougie Lampkin, who had won this competition every single time for the last 7 years was narrowly defeated by Albert Cabestany.
The heats reduced the field to the usual suspects... Raga, Lampkin, Cabestany and Fujinami. Marc Freixa, having his first ride on the Montesa, failed to qualify, as did crowd favourite Steve Colley.
In the final, Cabestany came out on top on observation, but he failed the high jump, which brought the final result down to the race between him and Lampkin. Dougie was leading the race by a bike length throughout, but Cabestany flew the final jump, landing in a heap at the top. It was so close the result was unclear until a slow motion replay revealed that Cabestany had taken the win by a hair. The 8000 capacity crowd weren't too happy at Dougie's loss, but it made for a very exciting event. No doubt it will sell out even earlier next year!
The following is taken for Octagon's press release;
The nine technical zones, complemented by a high jump and two parallel runs, that made up this second meeting of the world indoor series did not prove especially difficult in the first lap, which Lampkin closed with the best score, 5 points, corresponding to a failure in the seventh obstacle. Albert Cabestany and Adam Raga, with 7 and 8 points respectively, went on to stand ahead of Fujinami, who, with 9 points, was also assured of the move onto final, thus confirming his progress in this trial type. Marc Freixa remained out of the play-off after notching up 10 points, the result of two failures.
Lampkin maintained a tough duel with Cabestany in a thrilling second lap, this time with reverse direction zones that proved particulary difficult. Both established notables differences with respect to the two other finalist and arrived at the last parallel run in a tie that decided the outcome.
The third round will be contested on January 11, the next Saturday, in Koblenz, Germany.
