Pedro Barros claims Skateboard Park gold at X Games Barcelona – X Games news
Sunday, May 19 turned out to be a memorable day for Brazil’s Pedro Barros, as he walked away with an X Games gold medal, as well as the boasting rights for the first three-peat in Skateboard Park history.
He found himself pitted against a stacked field of extremely talented concrete park riders during the contention for the top spot on the podium, but he managed to stay on top of them all throughout the course of the final to make the final night X Games
Barcelona something that would stay in his memory for a long time.
He managed to hold-off the likes of America’s Curren Caples and Brad McClain to finish on top, while leaving the two to settle for silver and bronze medal respectively.
“I just wanted to skate as best as I could and have fun,” Barros said during his post-final interview. “This is amazing. It's the first time I've skated with [all] these dudes in a final and they were just ripping. It was one of the best X Games I've been
to, for sure.”
Six riders had their sights set on the ultimate prize during the final, with each of them looking equally hungry to take home the shiny, coveted gold medal.
With all six finalists to land five runs each during the final and their final score to be based on their best-two runs, the riders were definitely got every bit of opportunity that they could have possibly asked for to display their huge range of tricks
and innovative combos during the course of the lengthy final.
The 18-year-old Barros did not take too much time to take control of the heat after making the most of the features on the course to put a great run together.
However, the Brazilian rider ended up losing the lead to Caples with only just five more minutes left in the final. The 17-year-old American rider bamboozled the crowd and, from the looks of it, the judges to earn a 41.00 off his top run, which combined
with his second-best run of 40.00 to take him to a combined total of 82.00 points.
Finding himself under immense pressure all of a sudden, Barros stepped-up and picked up both his pace as well as height. He threw an exceptional and eventually decisive run that featured an over-head melon 540 above the most critical vert section on the
court, to earn a 43.00 for the effort.
The score combined with another 43.00 that he had earned earlier in the final to finish with a winning combined total of 86.00 points, reclaiming the lead and thus the gold medal.
Caples’ superb effort did not entirely go to waste, as he did get to take home his maiden silver medal.
McClain had not gotten off to the best of starts at the final and at one point, found himself sitting in sixth place. However, his fifth and final run earned him a 41.00 from the judges and raised him to a podium position.
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