Ben Wallace claims top honours at Red Bull’s Empire of Dirt in London – BMX News
The English rider Ben Wallace emerged triumphant at the latest edition of Red Bull’s Empire of Dirt which went down at Alexandra Palace in London, England, on Saturday, May 19-20.
America’s Ryan Nyquist finished in first runner-up place, while Canada’s Drew Bezanson and America’s Mike “Hucker” Clark rounded out the third and fourth position respectively.
Reportedly 10,000 spectators arrived at the event site to watch the exciting action sports athletes in action at a course that had been prepared in three weeks.
After a series of spectacular performances on Saturday, 16 stand-out riders made their way into Sunday’s final. Getting two runs each in the final, only four riders advanced into the super-finals to put down another run to seal the deal in their favour.
The Mongoose-sponsored rider Wallace had apparently saved the best for the last. Putting together a phenomenal run that featured a gigantic back-flip, 360 look-back, superman seat-grab, no-handed 360 and a remarkable 360 double down-side whip, Wallace easily
convinced the judges to announce him as the 2012 Empire of the Dirt Champion.
“I'm so stoked to have won this event on home soil,” said Wallace during his post-victory interview. “This has been the best BMX event I've been a part of, mainly thanks to the atmosphere and the energy of the crowd. I'm pretty happy.”
The English rider also took home the “Rider of the weekend” reward for his exciting performance throughout the weekend.
Nyquist had no intention of allowing Wallace to walk away with the win and put up a tough fight to try and get his hands on top honours. The American rider put together a run that included an impressive back-flip, 360 and 720. While the run was nothing short
of spectacular, it failed to take him all the way and thus forced him to settle for runner-up place.
Bezanson was pretty impressive during the final and super-final as well. His unique style, impressive skills and a huge array of tricks in his arsenal enabled him to finish in third place.
The award for the “Best Trick” went to TJ Ellis, the young rider from America, due to a perfect execution of a back-flip transfer between two lines.
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