Maddison jumps the Corinth Canal in Greece

Many a freestyle motocross rider has wanted to jump across the 117-year-old Corinth Canal in Greece. One rider has now succeeded in yet another spectacular showcase for his discipline: Australia's serial daredevil Robbie Maddison.

Yesterday, the Australian leapt over the 85m wide canal, and at his apogee was 95m above the canal's surface.

Maddison, 28, said getting the approach right despite the constantly changing surfaces - from grass to concrete to wood to asphalt again and then carpet - was difficult enough, but there was a greater hurdle to the jump: "Overcoming fear, that's always the hardest part," Maddison said.

"Maddo" will now travel straight from Greece to Mexico City for the season opener of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour, where he will be joined by fellow Australians Cam Sinclair and Blake Williams. Maddison was second overall in X-Fighters last year.

In 2007 and 2008 Maddison set three world records for distance all the way to 107m. In 2009 he celebrated New Year's Eve in Las Vegas by jumping up 30m onto the Arc de Triomphe in Las Vegas, and then descended off the monument to ground level. Last year pictures of him jumping the Tower Bridge over the Thames River with a backflip while the drawbridge was open went around the world.