Nate Adams walks away with gold medal in Moto X Freestyle – X Games 17 Update
X Games 17 continued to treat the fans to a memorable night of extreme action sports with the final of Moto X Freestyle at the STAPLES Centre in Los Angeles on Friday, July 29.
After a long wait, Nate Adams finally managed to add a second X Games gold medal to his collection after stealing the show during the finals. Adam Jones remained pretty impressive throughout the final as well, but eventually finished in second place to secure
silver medal. Dany Torres rounded out the podium after finishing in third place to take home the bronze.
The 27-year-old Adams remained the top scorer in the qualifiers and made his way confidently into the finals. Pitted against the likes of Jones, Torres and Japanese Taka Higashino in the four-man final, the quest for gold was never going to be an easy one
for the Glendale-resident.
As the final kicked off, Adams wasted no time in stealing the spotlight with his outstanding first and second run. The runs featured a one-hand takeoff to nac-nac back-flip, a 360 fender grab over the 75-foot gap and a huge 360 over the 90-foot gap. Earning
a score of 45 and 46 in his first and second run respectively, he finished with a combine total of 91 to secure the highest spot on the podium. Due to the exceptional first two runs, he wasn’t even required to take the third run.
Talking to a reporter after the final, Adams said, “That moment when they told me I didn't have to take that third run, I'd been waiting for that since 2004. This feeling that we have right now, you have your medal and it's done, you can't buy that feeling,
it's earned and we got it.”
With his latest success, the count of Adam’s X Games medal rose to 12, which includes two gold medals earned in 2004 and this year.
27-year-old Jones, from Minden Nevada, attempted his signature trick “rigor mortis” and pulled off several huge back-flip double grabs during his first and third runs, earning a score of 42 and 44 in them respectively. Finishing with a combine total of 86,
he went on to collect a silver medal, his fifth X Games medal and includes one gold medal earned in the same discipline in 2007.
After a four-year hiatus, the 24-year-old Spanish rider Torres made a comeback to the X Games. Finishing with a combine total of 83, he found a place on the podium and added an X Games bronze medal to his resume.
Japan’s 26-year-old Higashino missed out on the podium after finishing with a combine total of 78. This was his second fourth-place finish in two days, the previous one coming in Moto X Best Tricks final on Thursday night.
Tags: