| Date: July 30th - August 2nd, 2009. Place: Los Angeles, California, USA. |
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| STREET | |
| QUALIFYING Brian Tunney, espn.go.com, july 2009: Here's the scenario: three separate street sections against 12 riders, who get ten tries each on every section. I am not a mathematician, but well, it was a lot of tries on the street course, amounting to a qualifying round that lasted for approximately three hours and ten minutes. It was exhausting to watch, and that's just watching it. Imagine the athletes, who were giving it their all in the hot sun! Regardless, there was a ton of good riding. Garrett Reynolds took the win, Nathan Williams took second and Van Homan landed in third. I gotta hand it to all twelve competitors though; they seriously gave it their all. As for some firsts, Corey Martinez landed a smooth as butter truckdriver to opposite smith grind and Kachinsky nollie icepicked the steep 12-stair. FatTony, www.ridebmx.com, july 2009: Out of 12 riders, the field has been narrowed down to just six for tomorrow’s finals. The format today in Street went a little something like this: The 12 riders were split into two heats of six. The course was divided into three sections. One heat hit a section, and in that heat each rider hit the obstacle of their choice a total of ten times. Then the next heat hit the same section of the course, again taking turns until each rider tried a trick ten times. Then the two heats moved on to a different section of the course and did the same thing. Sure it is a little confusing, but what really matters is that in the end the riders that rode the best today made the cut and will be in the finals. Here are some of the highlights: - Garrett Reynolds has won a total of six X Games gold medals in street, (It may be five, but who is counting.) and it looks like he may win another this year. He qualified first and I know he still has some tricks up his sleeve. - Nathan Williams had lots of huge moves, and some tech moves too like a hang five to double peg grind to 180. He also locked into an icepick, then an over icepick down the biggest rail on course. - Van Homan tailwhipped down a big set of stairs and did a ton of other huge bangers. - Ty Morrow was on the bubble going into the last section of the course, but came through with enormous 360s down the huge stair set and off the big ledge (in both directions). - Corey Martinez did a gap to backwards rail to 180, and also did a backwards rail to 180 on the huge rail. So dialed both times. - Brian Kachinsky did a bunch of nolli to grind variations and manualed the huge, round rail. - Sean Sexton got knocked out of the finals at the last minute by Ty Morrow, but not before he did all his super creative and smooth moves like hang fives, a flair, and 360 no-handers. - Dakota Roche rode as amazing as we anticipated, but several failed attempts at a huge 180 over the big rail at the end of the contest kept him out of the finals. One of his bangers was an awesome manual up a ledge to gap to nose manual down the other ledge. - Seth Kimbrough felt a little out of place on the course but still put his freecoaster to use and did some creative moves like a 180 up to backwards manual across a ledge. - Brad Simms and Chase Dehart were both riding with injuries, and even though they both threw down some awesome moves, they ended up sitting out most of the contest. Street Qualifying Results (Top 6 Advance To Finals): 1.Garrett Reynolds 2.Nathan Williams 3.Van Homan 4.Ty Morrow 5.Corey Martinez 6.Brian Kachinsky 7.Sean Sexton 8.Dakota Roche 9.Aaron Ross 10.Seth Kimbrough 11.Brad Simms 12.Chase Dehart FINALS FatTony, bmx.transworld.net, july 31st, 2009: Everyone knew to keep an eye on Garrett Reynolds today as he had already won 6 X Games gold medals in Street in the past, so no one was surprised when he dropped hammer after hammer, pulling almost everything he tried flawlessly on the first try. Corey Martinez was riding with hurt ribs and didn’t pull as many tricks as he did yesterday. He came really close to doing a up rail to Luc-e to 180 up the biggest rail though. Brian Kachinsky was on fire today. He manualed the big rail again and did his nolli to grind variations again too. Nathan Williams was yesterday’s second place qualifier and pulled a lot of the same tricks he did yesterday. He also did an incredible feeble grind to gap to nose wheelie down the ledge and was trying an icepick to 180 down the long rail but never quite got it. Van Homan did a straight hop manual down one of the big rails and did a Derek Duster down the big rail in addition to repeating a bunch of his big tricks from yesterday. Ty Morrow really put it together today and pulled most of his stuff on the first try. His huge 360 down the stairs over the hubba ledge was insane and his opposite 360 down the big stair set was super wild too. Garrett Reynolds is the man. Period. No-hander to icepick, barspin to icepick, nose manual to barspin…his trick list from today could fill a book. Street finals results: 1.Garrett Reynolds 2.Ty Morrow 3.Van Homan 4.Nathan Williams 5.Brian Kachinsky 6.Corey Martinez |
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| VERT | |
| FINALS Brian Tunney, espn.go.com, august 2009: Jamie Bestwick nailed two stellar runs before going down hard on his head and shoulder after hanging up a tailwhip 540. Those scores were high enough to propel Jamie into the first place spot, where he remained for the second half of the final jam session. Jamie's tricks included alley-oop downside whips, a perfectly nailed nosedive tailwhip 5 earlier in the session, opposite and regular flairs and consistent flow and style. Chalk up a three-peat for X Games gold in vert for Jamie Bestwick. Feel better dude. In second was fellow U.K. vert competitor Simon Tabron, who has now added one-hand one-foot 900s to his vert repertoire. Simon has the 9 on lock, but he mixes that up with a wild batch of variations, including barspin to tuck no-hander and smooth carving flairs. Third place went to Chad Kagy, who went down several times on double flair attempts. While still on the bike, Chad nailed flair whips, opposite flair whips and barspins to tailwhips, but a few slide outs and time constraints kept Chad from getting his dream run in. I've also gotta mention the number of 900s throughout the entire vert comp. Tabron, DMC and Tim Wood all pulled consistent 900s throughout the day. And that is no joke. As for new tricks, well I gotta give it up for Kagy's opposite flair whip and Tabron's one-hand one-foot 900. As is the case with vert, even though Jamie and Dennis went down hard, I gotta end this by saying that I'm glad that everyone walked away from the vert comp. FatTony, www.ridebmx.com, august 2009: Everyone knew Jamie Bestwick was very capable of taking another gold medal in vert today and he proved everyone right by throwing down the best runs of the day, scoring 49s out of 50. In the final round he got in two solid runs (both 49s), then crashed on this third run. Lucky for him he had already won by that point. His runs were high and smooth with 540 and flair variations that no one else in the world can replicate. In the words of Simon Tabron, they “were all competing for second place.” Simon Tabron spun a 900 with only one hand and one foot on after pulling a straight 900 smoother than glass. He also did 540 variations and rode with a very smooth, brakeless style. Chad Kagy didn’t ride as well as we all know he can and had a few crashes, but a flair whip straight into an opposite flair whip helped him secure the third podium spot. He also did a barspin to tailwhip, huge superman seatgrab Indian airs, and 540 variations. Chad also tried two double flairs. He didn’t land them, but at least he stayed healthy…those things look really dangerous. Jimmy Walker did 540 inverts, 540 seatgrabs, flairs, and a ton of other tricks. But the huge tricks of the top few guys were just too much for Jimmy to keep up. Dennis McCoy pulled a 900 at the first X Games 15 years ago and pulled one this year at the age of 42. He also did huge 540s, a 540 barspin, flairs, and super high tabletops. Tim Wood threw a 900 in his first run of the day and landed a few other 900s throughout the contest. Coco Zurita has the style of a trails rider and did a flair to late x-up, double whips, and super stylish toboggans, tables, and turndowns. Kevin Robinson won a gold medal last night in Big Air but crashed a few times today keeping him out of the top five in vert. He did his signature no-handed flairs, and tried a 540 tailwhip. Jay Eggleston consistently goes higher than almost anyone and does lots of variations like no-footer one-handers, turndown to x-up, and so on. He also has super high 540s. Press release, august 2009: Jamie Bestwick’s first two runs in the final were so flawless they earned him 49 out of a perfect 50 possible points. He went down in his third run—hanging up on the coping of his re-entry into the vert ramp after a lofty 540 tailwhip—walked off the ramp uninjured, but didn’t return to the competition. Fortunately, since the top two best runs in the jam session were what counted, his were enough to earn the 2006 and 2007 BMX Vert gold medal winner his third gold in a row. “I saw the way Jamie rode, and I hate to say it, I knew we were competing for second place,” said silver medalist Simon Tabron. “He put down possibly the two best runs I’ve ever seen him do. And really from that point unless Moses appeared next to the ramp and parted the Red Sea or some other kind of crazy miracle, we were competing for second place tonight.” Tabron, who was the first person to land back-to-back 900s in competition in 2007s X Games, also took home his seventh X Games BMX Vert medal tonight. He didn’t try the back-to-back, but threw a one-foot, one-handed 900 into his run, which had never been done in competition. The groundbreaking move was enough to get him into second place. Chad Kagy, who took home silver in the BMX Big Air on Friday night, wowed the crowd with moves like a flat spin 540 tailwhip to opposite tailwhip flare. His bronze in tonight’s competition brings his total X Games medal tally to 11. X Games 15 BMX vert final results: 1.Jamie Bestwick 2.Simon Tabron 3.Chad Kagy 4.Jimmy Walker 5.Dennis McCoy 6.Coco Zurita 7.Tim Wood 8.Jay Eggleston 9.Kevin Robinson 10.Zack Warden |
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| SUPER PARK | |
| QUALIFYING Brian Tunney, espn.go.com, july 2009: Riders flowed from one to the next, and everyone seemed to be enjoying the heightened flow of the new format. (Five riders, 15 minutes, 30 second runs each until the clock runs out.) In the end, Gary Young proved that he's got a third eye for concrete lines with a first place finish. In second was Rob Darden, and in third was Scotty Cranmer, who amazingly circumvented the majority of the concrete and stuck to the wooden section of the course for most of the comp. FatTony, bmx.transworld.net, july 31st, 2009: Park qualifying was all about the lines and transfers today as Gary Young scored the top qualifying position. Rob Darden and Scotty Cranmer trailed right behind him, and of course last year’s gold medalist Daniel Dhers made it through prelims as well. Park eliminations followed a jam format that looked like this: Four heats (five riders in each) got a total of 15 minutes to ride. Riders took turns riding the park in 30 second intervals. Judges scored each run and the top four (I think?) runs of their session were added together to make a final score. Again, I know it’s confusing—hell, I don’t even fully understand it—but the bottom line is that the people who ride the best make it to the next round, which is the finals on Saturday. Now on to the highlights: - Gary Young always rides fast and this contest was no different. He had the biggest and most unique transfer lines on the course and really flowed everything how the ramp designers meant for it to be ridden. - Rob Darden also had great lines and a few transfers, but of course he has a good variety of tricks and style too—his one-handed tables are becoming the best out there. - Scotty Cranmer flaired over the capsule in the middle of a flawless run. - Jeremiah Smith filled his runs with back to back tricks, mostly on the outer edges of the course and the spine section. No-hander to barspin on the hip, superman seatgrab on the quarter, 360 whip over the spine…lots of good stuff. - Chase Hawk was the one everyone was saying to watch out for on this course. He had great flowing lines, huge 270 and 360 transfers and variations, and did an enormous 180 onto one of the flyout jumps. - Ryan Guettler is on a roll as of late and destroyed the course today with tricks like a superman flip over the box, flairs, great lines around the hips, and more. - Diogo Canina also flaired over the capsule and did a flip-whip over the box (brakeless). - Daniel Dhers isn’t a big fan of this course and only hit one line during his session. But each time he hit the line he did all of his big tricks back to back, changing up the variations slightly each visit the the course. 720 variations, flair variations, and whip variations just as we expected from last year’s gold medalist… - Dennis Enarson used the flyout jumps like a box jump, pulling tons of tricks, and also flip-whipped the box. Keep in mind this “box” is cement, has rounded edges making the “lip” and “landing” weird, and you have to find a line to get speed to hit it. - Corey Bohan snuck into the finals at the last minute with great brakeless flow mixed with stylish tricks in both directions, and even flairs, whips, and a frontflip up one of the fly out stepups. - Garrett Reynolds was fighting Bohan for that last qualifying spot, but couldn’t make it happen even though he rode like the machine that he is with non-stop barspin, tailwhip, no-hander, and spinning tricks. - Chris Doyle is always a treat to watch, and even though he has some of the best 360 inverts in the business, it wasn’t enough to make the top 10. - Mark Webb was injured last year and couldn’t make it to X Games so he was psyched to ride in it this year. His nose-dive 360s over the spine are out of this world, and a few of his runs looked like the wild Web videos you know him for. He even threw tech moves in there like an icepick to 270 on the Jersey barrier. - Josh Perry whipped into the big slant wall out of a manual. - Alistair Whitton did a flip-whip up one of the step up fly outs and also did a superman flip up the same thing. - Morgan Wade went down hard on a 720 straight to his ass, but still got up and tried a wild air into the capsule—think Ruben/bugsplat wallride style… It was wild, but he didn’t land it. Most riders stuck to the outer edges of the course, using the hips, berm, and fly out jumps, and a few really took to the spine section. But the guys who placed the best really found unique lines and transfers, and obviously that’s what the judges are looking for in this competition. SuperPark qualification results (Top Ten Make It To Finals): 1.Gary Young 2.Rob Darden 3.Scotty Cranmer 4.Jeremiah Smith 5.Chase Hawk 6.Ryan Guettler 7.Diogo Canina 8.Daniel Dhers 9.Dennis Enarson 10.Corey Bohan 11.Garrett Reynolds 12.Chris Doyle 13.Mark Webb 14.Colin Mackay 15.Josh Perry 16.Dave Dillewaard 17.Alistair Whitton 18.Morgan Wade 19.Brian Foster 20.Van Homan FINALS Brian Tunney, espn.go.com, august 2009: What a mess. A good mess, but messy nonetheless. Here's why: there are two heats in the beginning. Five riders in each heat, 10 riders in total. The two heats run, and the top five scores from both of those heats go on to the final finals. I know it's confusing, but it works pretty well. Unfortunately, before we got to the final finals, the announcer called the results as the final results, awarding Diogo Canina first place. Diogo was surrounded by his friends, doused with water and put up on someone's shoulders to celebrate. And then we got word to him that he actually had to ride again. In the end, Diogo finished in second, but he seemed visibly bummed. I would be too. Here's some highlights from the top three though. Gold, Scotty Cranmer: Insane gaps into and out of the concrete. Double whip backflips, frontflips and a huge flair over the capsule channel. Scotty also knows the format, so while everyone was getting psyched for Diogo, he was getting ready to ride the final finals. Silver, Diogo Canina: Insane flair transfers, 360 flips out of the concrete, tailwhip flips over the hump in the concrete. Won X Games for about five minutes before everything got straightened out. Bronze, Gary Young: Gary won qualifying, and perhaps because of the "First in Qualifying Curse," fell back to third. He eyed up some of the most creative lines in the park course, fired them out, then went back and fired them out faster and with turndowns in them. In all, it was a great comp, unfortunately overshadowed by some organizational confusion. But hopefully Diogo Canina is happy with his silver medal. It's good to see Scotty Cranmer back on top. He's been missed in the park comps. Congrats guys. FatTony, www.ridebmx.com, august 2009: The 10 guys that qualified on Thursday put on an amazing show today in BMX Park finals at X Games 15. The big surprise of the day was that Daniel Dhers didn’t make it on the podium. Before I get into anything, I have to call this out… The riders AND announcers were both confused on the format. There were two heats of five riders and each heat got a 15 minute jam session. After those two heats they announced that Diogo Canina won the gold medal. However, there was still another round of finals to go! The top five from the first ten went on to ride in another jam session. Diogo celebrated for a few minutes as if he just won gold (and $50,000), then they had to deliver the news…too funny. Yesterday’s top qualifier Gary Young hit all the same gaps and transfer lines as he did on Thursday, but since the other riders knew they had to find the flowing lines too, they were tracking them down in practice over the past two days. And it paid off. Just about every rider had new lines today and threw out bigger tricks than they did in qualifying too. Scotty Cranmer did a flip whip and a flip double whip up the setup up jump. He also did the flair across the capsule, a frontflip, a flip turndown, and 360 whips over the spine. He also did a big turndown gap from the pool coping into the box jump lip, literally jumping across the park. Diogo Canina did a 360 flip and a 720 out of one of the hip flyouts. He also did the big flair across the capsule. Ryan Guettler rode amazing in the first round of finals, but didn’t keep it together as much in the final finals. He did a flip no-footed can-can, a frontflip, back to back 720s, double whips, and a flip transfer on a hip. Corey Bohan rode brakeless, padless, and smooth as hell. His bangers included a frontflip up the step up, a one-footed x-up flip, and stylish 360 variations. Two-time defending X Games gold medalist Daniel Dhers had new lines today and big tricks, but the park layout just wasn’t suitable enough to his riding style for him to make it in the top five. He did a flair whip, whipped over the capsule, 270 double whips, corked out 720 variations, and more. Chase Hawk is such a treat to watch on this courses and had the great, flowing lines that you’d expect from him including his unmistakable 360 x-ups and 360 inverts. Jeremiah Smith did a barrage of tech and burly tricks all combined together. Bar to whip, bars to no-hander, superman seatgrab, 360 whips… Rob Darden also had great lines and threw down 720s, his signature one-handed tables, 360 variations, and more. Dennis Enarson did a flip whip over the box straight into a double whip on the quarter. Press release, august 2009: The X Games 15 BMX Freestyle Park Finals came down to a battle for first, between last year’s silver medalist Diogo Canina and four-time BMX park medalist Scotty Cranmer. Diogo Canina came out of the first round hot, pulling no handed flips and 360 flips in huge, near flawless runs that put him over 10 points ahead on the scoreboard in his heat. Scotty Cranmer and last year’s gold medal winner, Daniel Dhers, spent the second heat essentially tied in the standings, until Cranmer’s final run bumped him up into first position going into the finals. Cranmer, 2006 gold medalist who earned silver in 2007 and 2005, and Canina spent the finals trading places on the scoreboard. Canina charged the course and looked to be the winner, but Cranmer pulled a double tailwhip backflip up the step up on his final run, with only seconds left in the competition, putting him one point ahead of Canina, into the gold medal position. "Scotty's a machine," said Canina of his competition. “Of course I wanted gold—growing up you always dream of winning it all—but this is still an amazing feeling.” “We’ve all been riding with each other for a long time,” added Cranmer. “I don’t think we’ve ever been in a final that was that close. It was crazy!” Gary Young, who qualified first in yesterday’s BMX Freestyle Park Elimination competition tied with Dhers for fifth place in the second heat. With only the top five riders from the first two heats advancing to the final round, the tiebreaking factor came down to which rider had earned the highest overall score in a single run. Young had it, leaving Dhers empty handed while Young advanced to the finals, and then went on to edge out Corey Bohan and Ryan Guettler for the Bronze. X Games 15 BMX Park Final Results: 1.Scotty Cranmer 2.Diogo Canina 3.Gary Young 4.Ryan Guettler 5.Corey Bohan 6.Daniel Dhers 7.Rob Darden 8.Jeremiah Smith 9.Dennis Enarson 10.Chase Hawk |
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| BIG AIR | |
| FINALS Brian Tunney, espn.go.com, july 2009: K. Rob has another Big Air gold medal. The line that won it: a huge no-handed backflip over the 70-foot jump to 20-foot no-handed flair. It is called "Big Air," and you can't get much bigger than that. As for second, that goes to Kevin's good friend Chad Kagy, who didn't go for the rumored double backflip, but instead rolled the dice with a tailwhip backflip over the 70-footer to bailed whip flair at about 17-feet on the quarter. It would've been a very close call if Chad had pulled it, but let's just be glad he's healthy. We still got vert tomorrow for Chad and Kevin. In third was Dave Mirra. Dave definitely went for it. And as is the case with Mirra, it's either all or nothing. But even when his all doesn't go quite the way he planned, that's still a respectable third place for Mirracle Boy. The big news of Big Air though: Anthony Napolitan and BMX's first double frontflip. It's now pulled, and not only that, it was pulled twice in a row. Congrats to Anthony for making the BMX record books and making it out alive and well. I always get so scared for the Big Air competitors. That ramp is no joke. Also gotta give a shout to Allan Cooke, who placed a respectable fourth. Despite a full-time job at Haro and a recent cross-country move, Allan isn't slowing down one bit. Truly a great event, and even more splendid that everyone walks away healthy. Press release, august 2009: Kevin Robinson spent most of the BMX Freestyle Big Air competition looking like he’d be on the outside looking in as the BMX Freestyle Big Air medals were presented at STAPLES Center. His fourth and final run - featuring a no-handed flip over the ramp and a no-handed flare off the quarter pipe - leapfrogged him from fourth place into the winner’s circle. It’s the fourth gold medal and fourteenth X Games appearance of Robinson’s career, but success still isn’t considered a given in this relatively new event. “We’re just scratching the surface of this ramp. There’s a lot to come,” said the Rhode Island native. “I’ve learned when you never take anything for granted, life will surprise you.” Robinson also praised Anthony Napolitan, whose fifth place finish was offset by a successful completion of the first-ever double front flip in Games history. “Anthony is like a little brother to me,” added Robinson. “I’m so proud of him for doing that.” Coming up just short for a second place finish (90.33), Chad Kagy accepted his silver medal while expressing unhappiness about his overall performance. “I’m personally disappointed that I was unsuccessful three out of my four runs,” said Kagy. “I’ll have to step it up for tomorrow.” Dave Mirra’s signature “Air Traffic Controller” trick earned him a bronze medal with a 89.66. FatTony, www.ridebmx.com, august 2009: Big Air finals saw the first ever double frontflip pulled in competition by Anthony Napolitan, as well as a number of crashes (every rider except Kevin Robinson crashed at least once). Below is a complete listing of tricks that each rider did (with some approximate heights for some of their airs). While Napolitan’s double frontflip was progressive and completely amazing, his run wasn’t scored as high as others because of his low air and lack of a trick on the quarter. This wasn’t a best trick comp—riders were scored for an overall run—meaning that both the distance jump and the quarter air was factored into their scores. Morgan Wade: Run 1: barspin backflip, invert, Run 2: no-handed backflip, air (approx. 17') (crashed), Run 3: —, Run 4: — Allan Cooke: Run 1: x-up backflip-to-no-footer, no-hander, Run 2: backflip, —, Run 3: superman seatgrab backflip, no-hander-to-barspin, Run 4: Superman seatgrab backflip, double tailwhip (crashed) Anthony Napolitan: Run 1: no-handed frontflip, invert, Run 2: double frontflip (crashed), Run 3: double frontflip, air (approx. 12'), Run 4: double frontflip, air (approx. 11') Kevin Robinson: Run 1: no-handed backflip, air (approx. 18'), Run 2: backflip, flair (approx. 19'), Run 3: backflip, no-handed flair (approx. 21'), Run 4: no-handed backflip, no-handed falir (approx. 19') Dave Mirra: Run 1: no-handed 360 backflip (off the short jump), flair, Run 2: no-handed 360 backflip (off the short jump) (crashed), Run 3: no-handed 360 backflip (crashed), Run 4: no-handed 360 backflip (crashed) Chad Kagy: Run 1: flipwhip (crashed), Run 2: flipwhip, flair (approx 16'), Run 3: flipwhip (crashed), Run 4: flipwhip, flairwhip (crashed) Big Air results: 1.Kevin Robinson 2.Chad Kagy 3.Dave Mirra 4.Allan Cooke 5.Anthony Napolitan 6.Morgan Wade |