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Australian Victory!
Shane Yost Breaks the Yasutoko Streak (Inline Vert Finals Recap)
By Mike Opalek
The last time somebody topped a Yasutoko was Gravity Games 2002, when Marc Englehart had the run of his life. It was an example of what can happen when preparation meets opportunity. On July 29, 2006, opportunity arose once again, and once again, somebody was prepared.
Birmingham, England, where the beer is cheap and the women are delicious . . . Or is it the other way around? We’re here for the LG Action Sports World Tour stop #2, a stop which, as it turns out, will go down in history.
After a disappointing comp in Amsterdam, Nel Martin hit Birmingham with a vengeance. In his first run, he pulled solid 7-8 ft. airs with a mixture of tricks that included a 900, flat spin method 540, a 720 and massive styled airs which really put the judges to the test.
His Spanish countryman, Borja Fernandez didn’t fare so well. Borja pulled his usual 540s and 720s. In Borja’s second run, he threw a fakie 1080 but fell on a fakie inverted 720. The American hope, Marc Englehart destroyed the first half of his first run with flat spins and 540s everywhere, but couldn’t hold on to the lip tricks.
The battle within the battle was between the women, Fabiola da Silva and Ayumi Kawasaki. Ayumi had a great competition in Amsterdam but she couldn’t quite pull it in jolly ol’ England with too many set-up airs and a regular bag of tricks. It was Fabiola’s game to win. Unfortunately, she smacked her face on the coping attempting a double backflip in practice. She opted not to do the double backflip in her run but laid out a solid line with a mixture of flat spins, inverts and grinds to take 8th place just above Ayumi.
Sven Boekhorst opened the judges’ eyes with flawless grinds like a topsoul, alley-oop topsoul and a fishbrain. His airs were lofty and well-styled, and he even threw in a few spins to mix it up a bit. Sven scored well, but the stage was set for Shane Yost and the Yasutokos to take control.
Eito continued to struggle with the Tokyo Drift. He missed it in his first run, then actually landed it in the second, but fell on a flat 540 and hit his face on the flat bottom, once again knocking out his teeth.
Takeshi fell on his first run. In his second, he landed just about everything but it was a little sketchy and looked forced.
And so it fell to Shane Yost, who had the best run I’ve ever seen him do. Big airs, a garfunkel, a nice forward 900 and he landed his double flat spin in both runs. It was a bloody battle (literally), but it was fair, and so, for the first time in four years, a new face topped the podium, and collected the gold medal.
»»View the official results from this contest
