Massive congratulations to Naoto Tamaru who just took a huge win at Arkleague in Yokohama Japan followed on the podium by young bucks Takato Moriya & Yu Katagiri!
If anyone has any video footage from this please get in touch, thanks!
Photos; Akhiko Takahashi.
Yu Katagiri takes the top spot at Arkleague in Yokohama, Japan followed by Moto Sasaki and Yu Shoji. Top 8 through to what looks like a heavy final, somebody please film!
Montpellier never disappoints, and this year was no different. The top 3 this year were all Japanese, Kio Hayakawa, Yu Shoji and Moto Sasaki! These runs are worth watching, congratulations to Kio, Yu and Moto!
Back home and still catching up with updates after an amazing week in Montpellier! Congratulations to Julia Preuss taking the top spot in the Womens class on the big stage @fiseworld @ucibmxfreestyle ! Julia was followed by Jeanne Signeur and Melissa Droll on the podium. Great riding from all the ladies.
Catching up on updates after the long Fise Montpellier weekend, and first up more contest result news from Round 2 of the AFA series in Detroit! Congratulations to all the winners, and a nice surprise visit from Flatland Icon, Chase Gouin thrown in the mix!
If anyone has video footage from the event please send it in, thanks Todd Carter as always for the podium shots and results.
What a finals! Congratulations to Kio Hayakawa who dropped an amazing run to take the top spot followed by Yu Shoji and Moto Sasaki. Top 4 all Japanese with Masato Ito closely behind.
Photo: UCI.
Congratulations to Kio Hayakawa who took the top spot here at the Fiseworld/UCI contest in Montpellier. Matthias Dandois turned it on working the crowd to a party tune and riding flawless to take a well deserved second place going into tomorrow’s final.
Moto Sasaki took the third place with his signature backwards spinning style, top 8 make tomorrows final. It’s going to go off!
Congratulations to all the finalists… What a day!
Kio Hayakawa is now on Red bull, the RB team all surprised and took to the stage to welcome Kio to the team. Awesome way to surprise Kio and give him something for memory books forever!
What a nice moment yesterday, the official announcement happened right before Pro qualifying here at Fiseworld in Montpellier.
Good luck Kio! Well deserved!
Congrats Terry Adams, qualifying first in Sunny Montpellier here at Fiseworld. Matthias Dandois also rode incredible, with Yu Shoji and Toon close behind! Semi finals on Saturday. Top 16 make semi finals!
Intro/Interview: Yasuyuki Takeo.
Photography: Riku Shinde.
In the late ’90s, top Japanese flatland riders emerged from nowhere and started competing in the X-Games hosted by ESPN, the most prominent sports channel in the US.
By the early ’00s, it wasn’t surprising that Japanese riders were on the podium of international contests. The Japanese scene attracted riders’ attention worldwide, and they invented new techniques and trends one after another.
Yoshihiro Shinde has been one of the top riders in Japan for a long time. He continues to pursue Flatland while working as a product designer for an enterprise company on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
He is in his forties and does not ride BMX for a living. However, when he said he wanted to master BMX, his words somehow resonated with me. Even though I had left the BMX scene, I wanted to know what the word meant.
While many riders stick with only certain tricks, he has mastered all kinds of tricks since he started riding. Stating “I want to master BMX Flatland” would probably sound cliche, but I felt he was sincere in his view of Flatland and his weighty words.
He continues pursuing Flatland to master it, entirely different from riding for love, money, or fame. Here is his story.
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