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 Fabiola da Silva, third place. |
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 Marc Engelhart |
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 Shane Yost, second place. |
The Return of Marco de Santi
Inline Vert has a New Champion
Before anyone had dropped into the Vert ramp for the Inline Vert finals at the LG Action Sports World Championships, it was already known there would be a new champion. The inline world championships event is in its 12th year, but since the event was expanded to three sports, it's always been a Yasutoko winning gold. This year though, the high-flying brothers were not in attendance.
That wasn't the only change in the usual line up. Marco de Santi, who'd been on a three-year sabbatical performing in Las Vegas as part of Cirque du Soleil, was back. Prior to the actual competition, the buzz was about how well he was skating. While he hadn't been competing, he'd been on a strict training regiment as part of the show and his skating was as technical as ever, only even more refined.
But Shane Yost and Marc Englehart had also been training hard, and together, pushing their respective levels as well. In practice everyone was skating so well, it seemed like this could be the year the Yasutoko's would be overtaken if they had shown up.
When the doors finally opened for the first session of the LG Action Sports World Championships the real action began. The field consisted of ten of the top athletes in action sports, including the fabulous Fabiola da Silva, who garnered the loudest cheers from the crowd. In her first run Fab posted a 78.5, the highest score so far. It held until Marco de Santi took the ramp, linking together huge technical tricks such as a double flat spin and double back flip to earn a 91.25.
Marc Englehart started his first run strong, but bailed hard after a few big tricks and would have to rely on his second run score. , Shane Yost, the top ranked-rider in the event, put together a full run to score an 86.25 first time out, but needed to better it in his second run to win.
In the second run Spain's Borja Fernandez made a big push for the podium, tying Fabiola's first run score. But since Fab's second run score was higher than his first, her 3rd place held. Marc Englehart again had trouble, going down hard after only a few tricks, and Shane Yost also had a disappointing second run.
Marco, however, didn't relent, skating strong and matching his first run score with his second. His consistency would only be topped by his own excitement, and the LG Action Sports World Championships officially had a new champion.
Shane Yost (2nd), Marco de Santi (1st), Fabiola da Silva (3rd)
