 |
|
|
|
|
|
Anarchy in the UK
Inline Street Finals Recap
By Mike Opalek
With about 27 competitors coming from all over the world, notables include Bruno Lowe, Chaz Sands, Nicolas Schopfer, Oli Short, Cassimo Tassone, Eric Bailey, Wilfried Rossignol and Mathias Silhan to name just a few.
Just before the event there was a video dedicated to the memory of Richard Taylor. It was a great piece about 3 minutes long with some footage of him skating and hanging out throughout the years. There is also a Richard Taylor Memorial booth selling T-shirts and memorial patches to help raise money for the skatepark they will be building in his name. Richard, a former pro street skater died in an accident in August 2004.
The women came out and killed it. Jenny Logue the Brit who has been living in Australia for the past 3 years came home just in time to compete in this event. It was her first comp in over 2 years. She had a pretty solid run with a 360 and a topsoul on the box. Martina Svobodova from Slovakia came out with a nice sweaty down the box but had a few falls that didn’t do her any good. Fabiola put her vert skating to good use with a nice invert on the quarter pipe extension, a trick no one else even tried. But the real battle in the women’s group was between Angela Araujo and Fallon Heffernan. Angela killed it with a topsoul down the square rail, 540 over the box. But it was all Fallon, who blasted an alley oop top acid on the extension, a fakie half cab royale down the rail and then transferred from the spine to the wall ride. A well deserved win for Fallon.
One of the favorites, Bruno Lowe injured his knee on the first trick of his first run. It was a tough break for the German who is one of the best skaters in Europe. At the last minute, Cassimo Tassone was thrown out of the competition for undisclosed reasons. Luckily, his Valo team manager, Jon Julio was on hand to compete. Jon had a decent run, fishbraining the vert wall, but he had problems on the handrail going down on a topside acid – a trick that is usually consistent for him.
Chaz Sands unleashed a flawless 900 and a true mizou down the rail for a top 5 finish. But the real story was between Sven, Wilfried and Erik Bailey. Sven clinched the 3rd spot with some sweet 540 transfers, a 720 over the box and an alley oop topsoul down the rail. Wilfried Rossignol, who had a horrible first run, decided to throw all his hammers and thank heavens it wasn’t too late. He started with a crazy, inverted 540, a 900, a front side Farfegnugen and then he grabbed mute to disaster alley oop soul down the rail. Something I’ve never seen before.
But it wasn’t enough to top Erik Bailey. His notables included a backside royale across the sub rail transferring into the transition, a front side torque down the square rail, 360 wall ride and a spotless alley oop topsoul down the handrail. It was a flawless run, and it earned him a well-deserved gold.
»»View the official results from this contest
