Jackson Strong clinches gold medal in Moto X Best Trick – X Games 17 Update
The fans kept getting treated to a heavy dose of thrilling action with the Moto X Best Trick contest during the opening night of X Games 17 at STAPLES Centre in Los Angeles on Thursday, July 28.
This year, the entire podium was taken over by the Australian riders. Jackson Strong came up with the most impressive trick of the night to take home the gold medal. Defending champion Cameron Sinclair settled for runner-up place this year to secure the
silver medal, while X Games rookie Josh Sheehan rounded out the podium, clinching the bronze medal.
Aside from the three podium finishers, the line-up for the final comprised of the legendary Travis Pastrana, Taka Higashino, Todd Potter, Adam Jones and Mark Monea. Despite the presence of an intimidating American force, the Australians still managed to
steal the show.
As per the format of the contest, each rider had two runs, with the best one to get considered. The 27-year-old Pastrana was expected to become the biggest highlight of the night, but things did not go as expected for the Maryland-resident.
After attempting the much-hyped 720 during his first run, Pastrana ended up crashing, though it did not turn out to be anything serious. Not one to give in easily, he went for the same trick in his second run and this time ended up crashing harder, consequently
sustaining serious injuries.
With Pastrana out of the picture, the Australians hardly met any resistance from the rest of the field as they pursued the medals.
The 19-year-old Strong was among the few riders to have landed a front-flip, though the trick was still to make an appearance in a competition. During his first run on Thursday night, the young Australian made history by throwing the first-ever front-flip
in a competition. Even with a slight hiccup during the execution of the trick, he ended up earning a score of 95.66 and walked away with the gold medal.
“I knew I'd landed it as soon as I left the ramp,” Strong said in his post-contest interview. “It's a little bit shorter of a gap than I normally front flip at and I knew I had to huck this one hard. That's why I put the little twist in it, to make it spin
a little quicker.”
The 27-year-old defending event champion, Sinclair landed a nac-nac double back-flip variation during his first run to collect his best score of 94.66 and secure the silver medal.
Making his debut in X Games, the 25-year-old Sheehan walked away with the bronze medal after throwing a double back-flip to earn 93.33 points in his first run. He had spent the last week practising the trick at Pastrana’s compound week and surely the effort
paid off in the end.
Commenting on the outcome of the event, Sinclair said that the long-term efforts by the Australians were finally paying off, putting them in the spotlight during the Moto X Best Trick contest instead of the Americans.
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