Text: Rob Alton.
On November 24th we held our second major contest at Sport Zone Veresegyház. I worked really hard to improve on last year’s contest in all departments. Thanks to our main sponsors Magnetic, IPF Corner, DMKER, Elite BMX Shop and Sport Zone we raised 1000 Euro for Pro purse. I hoped it would help bring some top Pro’s here and it did! We had 12 Pro riders from 6 countries, including the kids and Amateur riders a total of 34 competitors!
Róbert Völler “Minerboy” our live DJ was running the rider routines which made my day a lot easier. We also added new podiums and sponsor wall for the prize giving.
I split School Class into A and B classes, because there is a good step up now from the kids who are really practicing a lot. Recent contests in Hungary have really helped to motivate them. The B class was great to see as some of the kids have only been riding 5-6 weeks and still wanted to take part. Emma Kriston one of two girls at the school got second place! There is a separate video for each category on Youtube.
School Class A
School Class B
Amateur Class was made up from the regular Hungarian riders and 9 of them battled it out for the top 3 spots. The level is definitely getting better with riders doing both front wheel and back wheel combos. I think nerves got the better of some people, but the atmosphere was great and everyone was pushing each other. All the riders are featured in the video.
Pro Class was amazing with so many different styles of riding, which made it really hard to judge. Dominik Nekolny was a clear winner with 3 minutes of banging combos and NO touches! It was great to see the UK guys there Matti Hemmings and Keelan Phillips. Nice to see Matti riding and not having to actually worry about running the event! He rode well and so did Keelan, but
about 30 seconds from the end of his second run he did a massive Steam Roller switch jump about 2 feet off the floor and on landing his peg snapped! Lucky for him nothing else broke, but we could see he was not a happy man. Matti and Keelan tied for 3rd Place. 2nd Place went to Martin Drazil with his usual flowing front wheel combos and smooth switches. Vidakovich Fülöp pulled some great combos filled with some nice originality to. It was good to see him ride against some top Pro’s and got a strong 4th Place. Davis Dudelis covered every style of riding, grip rides, bunny hop variations and very strong front and back wheel combos. Sebastian Grubinger was sick and the space was tight for him. His first run was his warm up! He still managed to pull some crazy tricks in what for him was a small spot. I was very happy he made the trip and I think he was too!
One of my favourite parts of the contest is the Mega Spin Battle. I do this at the JAMS and the Contests and we now have 4 different winners. It’s not as easy as it looks. Basically who spins longest wins in a knock out format! Check the video, it’s a lot of fun!
I really feel and hope that this year’s contest has put us on the map for a good winter-end of year contest. I will push to keep the prize money coming in and work more with the sponsors to build the event bigger and better every year.
I’m really grateful to ALL the riders who came, which range from the age of 7-47! The kids parents and sponsors could hardly believe their eyes when the Pro Class was on and that’s was my goal, to bring some of the best riders in the world to Veresegyház!
Hopefully see you ALL next year!
Rob Alton