FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

Finally BMX events are regaining traction and this trend continued over the weekend, as Swiss Cycling together with Freestyle Park Ticino hosted the 2021 Swiss Freestyle BMX Championships. The event took place at the Freestyle Park Ticino in Cadenazzo, a FISE standard park built by Hurricane in 2019 which takes no prisoners and boasts a good mix of big jumps, transfers, but also a smaller street-style section. The finals kicked off with the ladies, where we saw the inclusion of WCMX (wheelchair motocross) athlete Lorraine Truong. After a super stylish first run with a good mix of creative rotations, laybacks and lines, she decided to pull out all the stops for her second run and start by dropping in on the big vert ramp, definitely one of the highlights of the event.

The BMXtreme fest sport & music event took place on 17. - 19. September in the historical Telč (Czech Republic). Part of this event is a Pro and Am BMX miniramp contest (in spine miniramp). In addition to the BMX Miniramp comp, the event had a bike film screening, a pumptrack contest, as well as concerts by well-known bands and DJs.

Winner of Beko best trick is Michael Beran with bikeflip to tailwhip.

Contest PRO Final results:
1) Michael Beran 275 pts.

The Dutch Park championships took place last Sunday at Skateland in Rotterdam. Although a few riders were missing (Tom van den Bogaard's grandma turned 100 and Niels van Maren struggled with the Covid) the competition was fierce. When everyone rides at their best the vibe is good. The riders are happy with their riding and the crowd is stoked on the best riding they've ever seen the riders do. A win-win situation. 5 classes were on the program for Sunday. With practice, qualification rounds and finals it was a long day before the prizes were given out at the official ceremony in the evening. The most talented riders in each class get to call themselves Dutch champion for a year. In the Elite classes the titles went to Arjan Ellens and Jana Muradova with Thomas in 't Veld (15+), Bruno Colautti (-14) and Indy Kramer (Girls -14) winning the other categories.

What would have been an undisputed star of the day is not there when I arrive to the park Alessandro Barbero, reigning national champion for the last three years will not compete due to an ankle injury sustained in practice. This shuffles the cards and gives to each athlete the opportunity to shake off the awe and give everything to aim for the title.

And what a battle it has been with Gabriele Pala, Emanuel Bettassa and Christian Falvo holding up the KOBRA BMX team flag, Francesco Mongillo returning from a serious ankle injury, Vittorio Galli from Milan, Ramon Francesconi and Lucas Vega from Genova and the local (and promoter of the idea that led to to this Olympic center) Elia Benetton.

In the qualifing (that count only for the starting order of the finals) almost everyone hold back the bangers for the final. Unfortunately Elia cannot keep his runs together after finishing first in the quali with some impressive lines and enormous flip transfer. Down in both his final runs he’ll have to wait a full year for another shot for the title. The scores are very close despite very different styles: Christian Falvo with the highest airs, Gabriele Pala with the technical combos, Emanuel Bettassa with his unique flow and style and Mongillo with an impressive trick variety.

When the Street comp was done and dusted at the NK BMX Freestyle in Rotterdam it was time for Flatland to determine who the 2021 champions would be. A part of the Park section was used for the comp and a new crew of judges had arrived to give the right amount of points to each participant. It was the first time that Flatland was on the program for an official KNWU title and as always there's always room for improvement, especially when it comes to participation. In that respect it was good to get together and put the hammer down. Especially the Men title was a night battle between international starts Sietse van Berkel and Dez Maarsen who have represented The Netherlands on multiple occasions. It was Jorrit van Drumpt who edged out Bodean Maarsen for the