challenge TEXAS CHAMPIONS CHALLENGE While the Texas Champions Challenge features rodeo’s most popular events (bull riding, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, barrel racing and steer wrestling) it was the women’s breakaway roping that provided the night’s greatest excitement. In the event’s elimination round just 69 one-hundredths of a second separated five cowgirls. South Dakota’s Sawyer Gilbert set the pace with a 2.16 time. Next, Shelby Boisjoli stepped it up with a 2.12. Kelsie Chase Domer and J.J. Hampton stopped the clock at 2.25 and 2.76 respectively. But, Colorado’s Erin Johnson bested them all with this 2.07 run to win the elimination round. That meant she and Boisjoli would square off for the championship. Boisjoli roped first and her 2.25 time was increased to 12.25 because of a 10 second penalty at the starting line. That meant Johnson could safety up and coast to the $10,000 check, but, instead, matched the second fastest time of the night with a 2.25 to take the Texas Champions Challenge title. ERIN JOHNSON WINS TCC BREAKAWAY TITLE 9 FROM FRANCE TO FORT WORTH – BULL JUMPING COMES TO THE STOCK SHOW Emmanuel, “Manu,” Lataste, who hails from the southwest of France, was a new feature at not only Bulls’ Night Out, but also the Cowboys of Color Rodeo at the 2022 FWSSR. The performer who generated considerable buzz in Dickies Arena is a relatively new phenomenon in rodeo circles. “I do a special kind of French bull fighting and jumping,” Lataste recently said in a Western Horseman magazine article. “In English, it’s ‘bull jumping,’ but in French the name is ‘course landaise.’ It’s a mix between French bullfighting and pure ‘Spanish’ bull jumping, or leaping. The style that I do now is about 200 years old. But the tradition traces back 500 years, and there are stories that show the sport happened in old Italian, Greek and Hispanic arenas more than 2,000 years ago.” Lataste’s stunt is more than jumping a charging bull. Watch to fully appreciate how Lataste perfectly times himself to complete a summersault over the bull coming at him in full force. MANU LATASTE’S BULL JUMPING PROWESS Presented by
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