The 2022 UK Championships, hosted by Bugs Boarding, saw the introduction of a new competition format and an exceptional turnout of riders both nationally and internationally!
We were graced with the presence of the French, in Margaux Rolland, Mael Baudoin & Pierre Piras, the Portuguese in Filipe Vieria, the Polish in Dawid Rzaca and even the Australians in Dylan Warren. It was fantastic to ride with you all, thank you for joining us!
We mentioned a new competition format, and this event saw the inaugural event with the new Pro category format. Created to give all riders more bang for their buck, and enable riders to compete against each other across categories. All riders, excluding the Groms and Juniors, competed in the Pro category until they were knocked out and down in to their age category, it gave raise to the new term ‘the Prodium’, where the top 4 riders remained in the Pro category and were hailed as the undisputed best. The new format caused some confusion (and probably some in you reading that description!) but ultimately was enjoyed by riders and hailed as a success.
Now to the competition, fierce BoarderX racing led to a fantastic finals, where a bad line choice through the chicane by Matt Brind gave Amon Shaw the opportunity to make a pass into the final corner, working hard on the last straight to seal the victory.
Downhill saw a similarly close compeititon, with riders trading fastest times throughout. Andy Brind took the Gold medal, beating out Matt Brind by only 0.04s with Amon Shaw in third another 0.25s back.
Sunday rolled around for the Freestyle, with a head-to-head battle between Amon Shaw and Matt Brind for the coveted Pro Overall title, with whoever placed high in the Freestyle competition taking the title. A strong performance from Dawid Rzaca saw him take the Pro victory, while an uncharacteristically poor performance from Matt Brind (by his standards) brought the Overall title down to the final Freestyle runs – Amon stomping a floaty and clean run with Matt sliding out on his last trick once again saw Amon Shaw crowned a very popular UK Champion for 2022!
