Nyjah Huston steals the show during Skateboard Street finals – X Games 17 Update
The exhilarating X Games 17 action continued in Los Angeles, America, with men’s Skateboard Street contest on Saturday, July 30, at Event Deck in L.A Live.
After making waves in skateboarding competitions over the last few months, California’s Nyjah Huston stole the show during the final to add an X Games gold medal to his resume. X Games rookie, Brazil’s Luan Oliveira put up a remarkable fight but had to eventually
settle for a silver medal. California’s Ryan Sheckler, last year’s gold medallist, took home the bronze for his efforts this year.
The 16-year-old sensation Huston was clearly on a roll this season, winning the first three stops of 2011 Street League series. Everyone was anxious to see if this excellent form would enable him to go all the way in X Games this time after falling just
short and settling for silver medal in the previous two editions of the competition.
Huston finished with the fourth-highest score in Round 1 to make his way through to the finals and compete with the likes of Oliveira, Sheckler, Chaz Ortiz and Ryan Decenzo for top honours.
Despite pitted against a field of talented athletes, Huston completely stole the show, reaching deep into his bag of tricks to unleash a 91.66-point run to seal the fate of the contest. This sensational run included a kick-flip backside tai-slide big-spin,
a backside 360 lip-side down the big rail, a kick-flip from the concrete hip to 5-0 grind down the backside of the hubba ledge, capping off the run with a hard-flip off the roof to flat.
A regular in X Games since the age of 11 and silver medallist in 2009 and 2010, this year turned out to be year when Huston managed to rise to the top and add a gold medal to his collection.
The 20-year-old Oliveira finished with a best run of 91.00 points to secure the silver medal, making his first year on the X Games stage a memorable one. Big hard-flips over the bumps to bar and switch front-side flips down the big stair were just some
of the features of his amazing runs during the finals.
The 21-year-old Sheckler may have failed to defend his title this year, but the final was not a complete disappointment as he still managed to make it to the podium after scoring 89.00 off his best run.
Illinois’ Ortiz and Canada’s Decenzo rounded out the fourth and fifth positions, finishing with a best score of 84.33 and 80.00 respectively.
While there were remarkable performances from a number of skaters, nobody was able to push Huston out of the spotlight. Making such a solid impact even at such a young age, one can only wonder what the kid will bring to the competition in years to come.
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