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Event: 2003 Backyard jam round 2. Date: August 2-3, 2003. Place: Coventry Sky Dome, Coventry, UK. Organisation: Seventies |
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| This weekend, the sun might have been warping the train tracks around the country, but inside Coventry's Skydome, the Etnies Backyard Jam was on ice...literally! This time, the venue was an ice rink, which not only provided excellent views and comfortable seating, but also kept the temperature chilled as the riding heated-up. The ramp crew put in another late night, and after the protective flooring had been laid on top of the ice, the construction began. As a continual push to further the interest and excitement of the riders and the crowd, the course was improved yet again. This time, they built an extended curved wall ride, which had already proved a popular addition to the Bournemouth Backyard Jam. Hastings local and Federal team rider Ben Dukes was not only the first person to venture around the 180 degree, ten-foot tall structure (which sat on top of a six foot bank), but was also the first and one of the very few to venture around it in the opposite direction, too. The spine was spiced-up, as well, with a new hip extension based on the ever-so-popular Metro Jam set-up. Throw in a whole lot more rails, a new slanted wall-ride extension, the welcome return of the hip wall-ride, the chain link fence section, some of the best judges in BMX, Paul Roberts on mic duties, coat the whole course in a rather fetching baby blue, and you have the perfect ingredients for a weekend of high-level BMX and maximum crowd satisfaction. |
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| AMATEURS | |
| The line between amateur and pro continued to blur with the level of riding in Saturday's amateur comp, which far exceeded everyone's expectations. Sabourin Antoine, Rick Tribble and Bonfil Maxime were firm favourites to take the win after placing in the top three of qualifying, but Garath Wilson stepped up the level of his riding and moved up from 6th place in qualifiers to the number one spot in the finals. Thirteen points were all that separated the 1st and 12th place rider--a good indication of how close it was. | AMATEUR STREET 1. Garath Wilson - 89.25 2. Miles Davies - 85.00 3. Adam Drinkwater - 83.75 4. Bonfil Maxime (France) - 82.25 5. Sabourin Antoine (France) - 81.00 6. Daniel McGeary - 80.75 7. Mitchell Yates - 80.00 8. Rick Tribble - 79.75 9. Ben Walker - 78.50 10. Jason Judge - 78.25 11. Stuart King - 76.75 12. Tom James - 76.00 |
| PROS | |
| Jeff Zielinski, www.ridebmx.com: I made my way over to the Backyard Jam in Coventry, England and of course, I had a blast; there was lots of unbelievable riding going on while I was frantically running around trying to get photos of it all. Now, without further hesitation, there is a list below of the Pro Street finalists in order that they placed and some of the stuff they did to help them get there. 1. Gary Young (USA): Ironically, the last time Gary was overseas was for knee surgery. But this time around, it was to fly around a street course full speed (as usual) and do something incredible on each and every ramp. Gary placed first in both qualifying and finals with tricks like tables, downside no-footed-can-cans, and tailwhips over the big channel. 2. Sergio Layos (Spain): This was the first time I've seen Sergio ride in person and I wasn't disappointed. He did every type of lookback, turndown, and table variation (and 360's in either direction) over the spine and sessioned the wallride with big turndowns and tailwhips. 3. Van Homan (USA): Van had the last trick of the contest with a 360-double-footplant on the wallride behind the tranny to tranny hip. (Picture the 360 footplant everyone's been doing over a street spine lately and now picture it over something way burlier). Van also did turndowns, barspins, and downside whips over the big channel. 4. Will Jackson (England): Will was the only rider in the finals with four pegs and no brakes and you probably know what that means... he had some serious street shredder moves. Will sessioned the long grind box with a smith-to-feeble-to-barspin and long icepicks, did the rail backwards to 180, crooked grinded it, and over smithed it too. Don't be mislead, he did more than just grinds, Will did a good job of spreading his moves all over the course. 5. Jim Cielencki (USA): Before his run, Jim said to me, "Wouldn't it be funny if I grinded the rail and then went straight into a flair?" Not only did Jim grind the rail and do a flair, but he also Luc-E grinded the rail (he tried an X-up Luc-E grind too) and pulled his first opposite flair in only three tries. 6. Baz Keep (England): Baz tailwhipped the long grind box (some call it the "driveway"), fufanued the fence both ways, and truckdrivered the spine in both directions! 7. Brian Terrada (USA): Brain seamed like he was lacking in motivation during practice and he hardly even rode at all, but when his turn on the floor came around he turned on the switch and absolutely killed it. Icepicks to fakie on the fence, grinding the straight rail to 180, and he icepicked and fufanued the corner of the wallride. 8. Ruben Alcantara (Spain): Ruben did a lot of the same things other people did, but much higher and smoother, like hitting the curved wallride in both directions and going ridiculously high over the wedge hip. 9. Ryan Barrett (USA): Ryan's quickly becoming a regular in Europe with four Backyard Jams under his belt in two years. This time around Ryan's trick roster included inverts and toboggans out of the wallride and he came pretty close on a wallride-to-grind down a rail. 10. Scott Foster (USA): All those crowded sessions at the Vans park in Orange, California might have paid off for Scott because he had some pretty serious tricks, like whips-to-disaster, icepicks-to-fakie over on the street spine, and a tailwhip-to-Luc-E stall on the sub. |
PRO STREET 1. Gary Young, USA - 95.40 ($3000) 2. Sergio Layos, Spain - 93.20 ($1700) 3. Van Homan, USA - 90.80 ($1200) 4. Will Jackson - 90.60 ($900) 5. Jim Cielencki, USA - 90.40 ($700) 6. Baz Keep - 89.60 ($550) 7. Brian Terada, USA - 87.60 ($400) 8. Ruben Alcantara, Spain - 85.80 ($275) 9. Ryan Barrett, USA - 85.20 ($175) 10. Scott Foster, USA - 83.00 ($100) 11. Dave Freimuth, USA - 82.20 12. John Heaton, Canada - 81.60 13. Northern John - 81.00 14. Taj Mihelich, USA - 80.60 15. Ben Hennon - 78.40 |