Kuroyama ready to do damage

For the first time this season, Japanese riders will outnumber those from France, Norway, Great Britain, Italy, France, and even Spain, at the Japanese round of the 2012 FIM Trial World Championship at Twin Ring Motegi this weekend. Out of the six other Japanese riders joining regular campaigner Takahisa Fujinami - Repsol Montesa in the World Pro Class, thirty-three-year-old Yamaha rider Kenichi Kuroyama is likely to inflict the most damage. The experienced rider has won the Japanese national championship ten times and is also the reigning Japanese Trial champion having won his home series in 2011. Last year Kuroyama was fifth on day one of the Japanese Grand Prix and climbed to fourth place on day two, beating a number of European regulars including Jeroni Fajardo - Beta (then Ossa) who finished second on the podium on day two in Australia last weekend. Kuroyama's international Trial career began in 1995 in Luxembourg when he was sixteen-years-old. He went on to achieve his first podium the following year in France, and in 1997 he earned his first win at Sant Fruitos del Bages in Spain aged eighteen. Absent as regular FIM Trial World Championship contender since 2005, Kenichi still competes in the Japanese Trial Grand Prix each year. In addition to shaking up the World Pro class, further Japanese riders will also compete in the Junior, Youth and Open International divisions at Twin Ring Motegi this Saturday and Sunday.