Yes, White ditched the bindings and the flannel and looked quite comfortable in his summer attire on the Vert ramp, but it was Gagnon (Carlsbad, Calif.) that came out on top as he broke a tie with White on his final run by landing a Switch Heel-flip 360 Repeat for a score of 95.00 and his third X Games gold medal.
“Two or three times Bucky (Lasek) has taken gold from me,” said Gagnon, referring to the 2000 and 2004 Vert finals where Lasek unseated him on his final run. “Bucky loves drama and I’m always the victim.”
But Lasek (Baltimore, Md.), the two-time defending champion, was forced to go big in an all-or-nothing third run that ended with a fall after he went down in the first 10 seconds of his first two runs to finish in last.
White’s remarkably clean first run that was highlighted by a Fakie to Fakie 5 scored 92.25 and held up for the silver medal and he became the first athlete to medal in different disciplines in both the X Games and Winter X Games.
“It’s exciting to go from snowboarding to skateboarding because I get to start as the underdog again,” said White, (Carlsbad, Calif.) who will be leaving for New Zealand Monday to train for the Winter Olympics.
At one time the 900 was considered the Holy Grail of skateboarding. On Friday night Sandro Dias (Costa Mesa, Calif.) became the first person to land the trick in a timed event at the X Games, but only brought home bronze – the fifth medal of his career.
“I knew I had another two runs to try other trick and I knew I could do better, but I just fell,” Dias said.
ESPN X Games is the definitive annual action sports competition featuring more than 150 of the world’s best athletes competing in: BMX Freestyle, Moto X, Skateboard, Surfing and Wakeboard. X Games 11 is being held August 4-7 in Los Angeles and airing live on ESPN, ABC and ESPN Deportes. Its venues include STAPLES Center, The Home Depot Center (Carson, Calif.), Long Beach Marine Stadium for Wakeboard and Puerto Escondido, Mexico for Surfing. All competitions at STAPLES Center and The Home Depot Center are ticketed events, which can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com. X Games will remain in Los Angeles through 2009.
