European Trials Championship
Round 4 – 01/07/06
Darfo Boario Terme, Italy
James Dabill’s European championship campaign suffered
a cruel blow at the Italian round when he was deemed to have
missed a section despite his punch card being both correct
and complete. Dabill was originally credited with third place
and attended the prize giving ceremony to collect his trophy.
However in a strange series of events the clerk of the course
accepted a protest from one of Dabill’s main championship
rivals which suggested that James had missed a section on
the second lap. With no actual evidence to support this claim
the clerk of the course took the bizarre decision to amend
the results without referring it to the jury, and awarded
Dabill a twenty-mark penalty for a section he obviously had
not missed.
James lodged an appeal against the protest, but was unsuccessful
in his application despite not even being given the opportunity
to present his case in person to the three-man panel that
comprised of two Italian jury members. This was the finale
on a day when Dabill had already had his difficulties and
had fought back well to take what he thought was a well-earned
podium position.
For the second week running the course lacked variety with
nearly all the hazards being steep, dry and dusty. James started
well with just a dab in the first four sections, but his day
begun to fall apart as then recorded back to back failures
at sections five and six. Dabill then made a slight recovery,
before again recording two more fives in a row, this time
at sections nine and ten.
Fourth at the halfway point, James put together a more consistent
second lap showing to edge his way up the leader board, to
the point where he thought he had claimed third place thanks
to a stunning clean in the last section of the day.
Due to the events of the day, Dabill now finds himself second
in the overall standings.
“I am absolutely gutted how one man can take a decision
that is based on someone’s word against another with
no hard evidence at all. This is obviously a set back, bu
the championship is far from over yet.”
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