Riga, 27th October 2012: The FMX elite assembled in Arena Riga for the penultimate contest of the 2012 FIM Freestyle MX World Championship on Saturday. On this occasion, NIGHT of the JUMPS could justifiably have been rebranded as NIGHT of the COMEBACKS, with the trio of Josh Sheehan (Australia), Javier Villegas (Chile) and Maikel Melero (Spain) making their return to World Championship competition after a long absence.

For Sheehan and Villegas, the qualification stage went pretty much to plan, with both of them going through in second and third positions on equal points. David Rinaldo also matched their score to qualify for the final. Libor Podmol, who had to get past the preliminary stage if he was to keep alive his slender hopes of taking the title, duly progressed on the basis of his Indyflip combos. Joining the above in sixth place was Hannes Ackermann after performing the most extreme Tsunami Flip of the season. But once again dominating proceedings was Remi Bizouard who, not content to play it safe, went into all-out attack mode.

Birthday boy Massimo Bianconcini may have finished last in the evening’s freestyle competition but had the immense satisfaction of prevailing in the Maxxis Highest Air Contest, his tenth triumph of the season in this classification. Petr Pilat, Maikel Melero and Brice Izzo will have been disappointed to go out early despite putting in some strong runs that included a 360 Over Kicker (Pilat), Clicker Underflip (Izzo) and Superman Seatgrab Flip (Melero). Having gallantly turned up in Riga with a broken shoulder, Jose Miralles still managed a creditable tenth.

The finale promised to be the championship showdown of all time between Podmol and Bizouard. Libor pulled out all the Indyflip combos imaginable and succeeded in displacing Hannes Ackermann from the hot seat, despite the German showing off his new Saranwrap to Nac Flip. The Czech rider did not hold onto the lead for long, however, as David Rinaldo pulled a Lazyflip and Double Seatgrab Backflip to move ahead on the night. The Frenchman stayed on top after Sheehan took a tumble on his penultimate trick to finish in sixth.

The event win finally came down to a battle between last year’s world championship rivals Villegas and Bizouard. The Chilean had to dig deep into his repertoire of tricks to fend off Bizouard. In the double-up, he pulled off a Cordova to Superflip which put him ahead. Bizouard replied with Rulerflip, Cliffhanger Flip and Hart Attack Flip. Ultimately, the judges ruled Villegas the winner by a single-point margin – a great way to mark your comeback to the world championship arena. At the same time, mild disappointment for Bizouard, but much easier to swallow than at this stage last year, the runner-up spot sufficing to secure the 2012 FIM Freestyle MX World Championship title for the Frenchman ahead of time. This makes him FMX World Champion for the third time.

The last points up for grabs in the FIM Freestyle MX World Championship will be awarded at the grand finale of the NIGHT of the JUMPs in Sofia on 15th December. And even if the world champion is already wearing the crown, the lesser prizes will still be hotly contested.