World Outdoor Trials Championship Motegi, Japan
Round 4 Day 2 Sunday- Lampkin
 After
dislocating the index finger on his right hand in the first
of two days of competition at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit
north of Tokyo in Japan, Dougie Lampkin finished the second
day in seventh position. However, the result does not reflect
the quality of Lampkin’s riding or the pain he endured
on his way round the two laps of the variety of hazards formed
at the circuit, including natural earth banks, rock faces
and man-made sections.
Lampkin knew the second day of competition was going to be
difficult and his predictions proved correct. Riding with
his right hand tightly bandaged, he initially tried using
his middle finger for the front brake, but eventually reverted
to the damaged, index finger. The damaged tendon also meant
that he found it extremely difficult to put significant weight
on his right hand and admitted that by the end of the day,
his hand had gone numb.
However, he still put the effort in. The first lap saw him
finish seventh, but importantly, only four marks behind fifth
place. His second lap was much more successful though, as
he bettered his first loop score by ten marks. He was playing
a tactical game the second time round, keeping a close eye
on the two riders immediately in front of him and was looking
good to leapfrog them for fifth place. However, Jeroni Fajardo
– Beta lost three marks on section thirteen, compared
to Lampkin’s five, meaning that fifth would eventually
be denied him.
Lampkin stated: “Today was really hard work; it started
hard and just got tougher. There was so much tape on my hand
that I could barely feel it and by the end of the day, I was
hanging on by my fingertips. It’s a shame because, even
with that, I felt my riding wasn’t actually too bad.
We were checking scores with the two riders in front of us
and it looked as if we might be able to get back up to fifth.
”Then Fajardo got a three on section thirteen and that
put a bit of a spanner in the works. I had a few lucky escapes,
but five’d the last section and that ended my chance
of getting fifth, which was a shame.”
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