Team Spain wins the third Freestyle of Nations - Germany's Luc Ackermann wins the individual ranking despite injured shoulder

In front of a sold-out crowd in the Olympiahalle in Munich, Germany, NIGHT of the JUMPscelebrated the biggest Freestyle Motocross event of recent years in Munich on Saturday. More than 9,000 ecstatic fans whipped the FMX athletes into a frenzy with some riders showing their best performances ever.  Australian Nitro World Games winner and Triple Backflipping phenom, Harry Bink took part for the first time. Together with the German FMX World Champion and X Games winner Luc Ackermann and the Frenchman Brice Izzo, they formed Team World, which had to compete against the teams from Spain and the Czech Republic in the Freestyle of Nations.

The World Team came out of the box fast in the first Freestyle MX Heat round.  The Frenchman Brice Izzo reeled off an extremely successful run with tricks like the Deadbody, Cordova Backflip and Tsunami Flip.  With a solid run, Brice ended up five points ahead of Libor Podmol, the comeback kid from the Czech Republic, who also delivered a clean run including his signature Underflip.  Spain's NIGHT of the JUMPs debutant Abraham Parra landed in 3rd place, who was feeling the pain from a previous rib injury.

After the surprise explosion of his KTM 300sx in Berlin at the previous round, the Czech Whip-master Matej Cesak returned with a new machine in Munich and it held up long enough to take his second Best Whip win of the season.  With his huge lookback whips, he managed to ward off the Turndowns from Spain’s Marc Pinyol. Unfortunately for the World Team, Harry Bink’s bike suffered a small electrical malfunction and he was unable to finish the Best Whip final, taking 3^rdposition and 65 points for the World Team.

In Freestyle Heat 2, Marc Pinyol brought the house down with one of his best FMX runs in memory.  After his Cali-Roll crash in Berlin, he was able to get redemption in Munich by stomping it cleanly and also landing the Front Flip perfectly to give Spain the lead throughout the night’s event.  Matej Cesak (CZE) put together a clean run with a Tsunami Flip, his new Lazyboy Flip and  Hart Attack  Flip and took  second place with 62 points.  All eyes were however on the Aussie, Harry Bink who opened his account with a huge Hart Attack Flip on the first jump but when he attempted a One-Handed-Nac Flip on his 6^th jump, his engine cut out on the ramp and he came up short.  Harry was locked into his bike with the use of his Foot Hook, and only just got away from the bike before a huge crash.  Harry only just made the top of the landing but still with so much force, he was ejected out from the landing into a 3-metre high body backflip and somehow fortunately, was uninjured from what could have been a career-ending crash.  With the crash, the fans were unable to see what tricks he was potentially going to do on the new Next Gen ramp.

In the synchro competition, Team Spain and Team World fought a spectacular battle after Team Czech Republic with the Podmol brothers being voted out by the jury in round 1.  Maikel Melero and Marc Pinyol started with synchronous Tsunami Flips. When they both landed a Front Flip each in a train, one after the other at the end, they were sure of the bonus 100 points. Brice Izzo and Luc Ackermann countered with No-Hand-Flips, Doublegrabs and Superflip Indies, but in the end that would only be enough for 2nd place.

In the 3rd Freestyle heat, Spain's five-time World Champion Maikel Melero reeled off a spectacular run including Tsunami Flip, California Roll, Front Flip and finishing with a No-Hand Front Flip for his Double Up. With the best run so far of the night, Maikel was awarded a whopping 79 points. Filip Podmol tried to counter with tricks like Cliffhanger Flip, Switchblade Flip, Tsunami Flip, Holygrab, Clicker Indy Flip but it wasn’t enough to beat Melero with 70 points and enough to take 3^rd place in the individual ranking.  It was then time for the German FMX Terminator who would battle through an injured shoulder he suffered from training when he under-rotated a front flip and subluxation of the joint.  But the X Games gold medalist ignored the pain and got the 9,000 fans riled up with his huge 360, Ruler Indy Flip and landing the Front Flip cleanly before finishing with a Double Backflip on the Double-up.  With the crowd going banana’s, Luc managed to get 1 extra point over Maikel Melero which sealed his individual win for the night.

With 80 points, Luc secured the third victory in the individual classification in the NIGHT of the JUMPs Tour ranking and leads the series with 60 points ahead of Maikel Melero and Filip Podmol.

Luc Ackermann also won the Best Trick competition with another Double Flip.  However, Spain won the day's Freestyle of Nations ahead of the Czech Republic and Team World in third place.

The next round of the NIGHT of the JUMPs will take place on 20^th of May in the SAP Arena in Mannheim.  The world’s best riders will return to fight for more points for the World Tour Ranking 2023.

 

HIGHLIGHT VIDEO

 

NIGHT of the JUMPs / Freestyle of Nations

München – 25.03.2023

Results

Overall

1. Team Spain                                     448 Points
2. Team Czech Republic                    421 Points
3. Team World                                    403 Points                     

Freestyle Motocross Run 1

1. Team World – Brice Izzo                                  57 Points
2. Team Czech Republic – Libor Podmol           52 Points
3. Team Spain – Abraham Perra                         40 Points

Freestyle Motocross Run 2

1. Team Spain – Marc Pinyol                                 67 Points
2. Team Czech Republic – Matej Cesak               62 Points
3. Team World – Harry Bink                                   36 Points

Freestyle Motocross Run 3

1. Team World – Luc Ackermann                           80 Points
2. Team Spain – Maikel Melero                              79 Points
3. Team Czech Republic – Filip Podmol                70 Points

Whip Contest

1. Team Czech Republic – Matej Cesak               100 Points
2. Team Spain – Marc Pinyol                                   80 Points
3. Team World – Harry Bink                                     65 Points

Synchro Contest

1. Team Spain – Melero/Pinyol                                   100 Points
2. Team World – Ackermann/Izzo                              80 Points
3. Team Czech Republic – F.Podmol/L.Podmol        65 Points

Best Trick

1. Team Germany –Ackermann/                              90 Points
2. Team Spain – Melero/Alejandro Bonafe             82 Points
3. Team Czech – F. Podmol/Cesak/                        72 Points

NIGHT of the JUMPs World Tour Ranking 2023 (nach drei Contests)

1. Luc Ackermann (GER)      60 Points
2. Maikel Melero (ESP)         50 Points
3. Filip Podmol (CZE)           44 Points
4. David Rinaldo (FRA)         36 Points
5. Matej Cesak (CZE)           30 Points
6. Marc Pinyol (ESP)             28 Points
7. Petr Pilat (CZE)                24 Points
8. Kai Haase (GER)               18 Points
9. Dany Torres (ESP)           18 Points
10. Brice Izzo (FRA)                10 Points
11. Libor Podmol (CZE)           9 Points
12. Harry Bink (AUS)                8 Points