Big plus was a small eating stand where you could actually eat some good food and drink some hot tea or coffee, which you needed because it was very cold for spectators and filmers like me who just sit or stand still all the time. 
On Saturday were the prelims and Sunday the finals. Expert class showed some nice riding with mostly Dutch and local riders, Master class was dominated by a group from the Czech Republic, but won by Tom Hoffman from Germany. Keep an eye out for him, he's winning top prizes all over Europe!
Great riding in pro class with riders like Terry Adams, Justin Miller, Mickey Gaidos (Southriders Crew) from the US, Hiro, Shintaro, York, Kuga and Yanmar from the Land of the Rising Sun, Stereo Pandas Alex Jumelin and Raphael Chiquet, Matthias Dandois, Michael Sommer, Dutch Destroyers Bram Verhallen and Sytse Winkel, German riders like Frank Lukas, Seppl, Sven Steinbach and Dan Hennig and a big UK posse with Sam Foakes, Keelan Philips and Effraim Catlow who was one of the judges. 
12 pro riders qualified for the finals. Matthias qualified first with a perfect run full of original, hard tricks and great style. Finals were done in Battle Style. Two riders went head to head and you could choose your opponent, one was red and one white, after battling the judges put up flags, red or white. You count them and a winner was chosen, loser was out. Simple and very effective. 
We saw some very exciting battles: Justin taking out Matthias, Sam Foakes taking out Chris Bohm, Keelan Philips taking out Terry Adams... and in the end the final battle was Martti vs Alex. Was it a hard decision for the judges? Well.... although Alex is a great rider he didn't stand a chance this time against a Martti Kuoppa unleashed! He just tore it up with revolutionary tricks! And best of all, I talked to Martti the weekend before Flatground, in Berlin and he told me he couldn't enter that tournament because of his bad wrist and ankle and wasn't sure if he would enter Flatground.
So when I met up with him on Saturday morning he was going to try if his body would hold. His first practice runs were a bit unsteady but as time went on he was getting more and more sure of himself and after qualifying I spoke to him on Sunday morning and he told me he was feeling much better than on Saturday... well, you could say that all right! His final run against Alex was amazing! Bombs all the way! Check out FLATtv 9 in March next year to see just what you missed out on! 
Many thanks to Michiel and crew, Hoite, Scott, sponsors, riders and crowd! Props to Superbird, the band that got the Flatground party going! Sweet! And no thanks to DJ Yoda, who single-handedly fucked up the Flatground party! Man, your set sucks! We wanted to dance, not hang around watching tv. Thanks for nothing (that's not just my opinion but those of many, many at the party!) 
Merry X-mas and a happy newyear! Stay healthy!
Renato.
Movie clip of the final Kuoppa - Jumelin - battle
Results:
Pro finals
1 Martti Kuoppa Finland
2 Alex Jumelin France
3 Sam Foakes England
4 Keelan Phillips England
5 Chris Bohm Germany
6 Justin Miller USA
7 Viki Gomez Spain 8 Terry Adams USA
9 Matthias Dandois France
10 Shintaro Misawa Japan
11 Hidekazu Kuga Japan
12 Bram Verhallen Netherlands
Master finals
1 David Hoffman Germany
2 Martin Drazil Czech Rep
3 Milan Haspeklo Czech Rep
4 Ondrey Tirko Czech Rep
5/6 David Linszen Netherlands
5/6 Dez Maarsen Netherlands
7 Boil Jean-Bastiti France
8 Sebastian Martin Germany
9 Mintovt Pascal France
10 Daniel Komala Poland
Expert finals
1 Jordy Kersten Netherlands
2 Navid Saleki Sweden
3 Dennis Goossens Netherlands
4 Jon Birts England
5 Henri van Hoeve Netherlands
6 Luka Hons Netherlands
7 Laurent Cynf France
8 Bodean Maarsen Netherlands
9 Clement Benoit France
10 Jeremy van Bedijk Netherlands
Pics BdJ
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.