Latvia achieved the best result in its Motocross of Nations history by finishing fourth overall at the 79th edition of the event in Ernée, France. The team of Pauls Jonass, Kārlis Reišulis and Jānis Reišulis delivered a memorable performance that shattered every previous benchmark for Latvian motocross on the world stage.
Since making its MXoN debut in 1992, Latvia had qualified for the main races on 21 occasions but had never finished inside the top five. Its previous best result was an eighth-place finish at Assen in 2019, followed by tenth and ninth-place results in the two most recent editions. Ernée, however, marked a breakthrough moment for the Baltic nation.
The positive signs were already evident on Saturday. Latvia secured direct qualification to Sunday’s races after finishing fifth in the qualifying standings, with Kārlis Reišulis placing fifth in the MXGP Qualifying Race and Pauls Jonass matching that result in the Open class.
In the opening MXGP + MX2 moto, Kārlis Reišulis crossed the line in 12th while Jānis Reišulis finished 20th. The team’s strongest performance came in the second race, where Jonass delivered an outstanding third-place finish and Jānis added another valuable 12th place result, ranking as the sixth-best MX2 rider in the field.
The event concluded with Jonass securing eighth place in the final moto. Combined with the discard of Kārlis’ 16th-place finish in the last race, Latvia accumulated the points required to secure a historic fourth-place overall result.
With race scores of 12-20-3-12-8, Latvia finished ahead of several traditional motocross powerhouses and ended the weekend just one step away from the podium.
Pauls Jonass :«I was really happy with my first moto, and I was catching Webb in the last moto until I had a small crash. And P4 for Latvia makes me so happy! Both brothers did a good job too; we worked well together and had a good team atmosphere. We are a small country and ten years ago we had a feeling of success when we just made it to the A final but today we beat some of the mecca countries of the sport; we were consistent and it paid off. The track was rough and really tricky today. Some parts were really deep with good traction and other parts were slick; you had to know where the limits were and when you could push.»
