Shaun White defeats Pierre-Luc Gagnon to win Skateboard Vert gold medal – X Games 17 Update
After a real nail-biting contest, Shaun White walked away with top honours from the Skateboard Vert finals that went down at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday, July 30.
The 24-year-old legendary action sports athlete brought Pierre-Luc Gagnon’s three-year domination to an end on Saturday to clinch gold medal, leaving the defending champion to settle for the silver this year. Bucky Lasek rounded out the podium, taking home
the bronze for his effort.
Prior to the final, the Skateboard Vert contest saw the riders compete in the elimination round to earn a place in the final.
Gagnon, more commonly referred to as PLG, won the first heat of the elimination round to advance to the finals, along with second and third-place finishers, Lasek and Adam Taylor.
The second heat witnessed a huge upset as both Bob Burnquist and Andy Macdonald failed to make it into the final’s cut. The heat was dominated by White, while Elliot Sloan finished as runner-up to go through to the finals of the event.
As the finals kicked off, it soon became a head-to-head battle between White and PLG for the gold medal. Both the riders kept lifting the level of the competition to a higher level with each run, while managing to stay at par with each other in terms of
performance.
Eventually it came down to the last run. White threw down a sensational run, which included a 720, a body varial front-side 540 and a heel-flip body varial front-side 540, to earn 93.00 points and edge past his rival’s top score of 91.66 points.
The fate of the contest was not yet sealed as PLG still had one final run left. However, the defending champion ended up crashing during the crucial run, failing to improve on his top score and allowing White to clinch his second gold medal in the discipline.
“I just wanted to put this down for all the fans that came out. I've been working so hard to get this going this season. After that seven I landed I had so much energy that I said "I'm making this happen,” White said after the final. “This is the second
time I've ever won summer X Games, so I'm beside myself.”
The 38-year-old Lasek finished in third place after scoring 87.66 points off his best run. He was glad to make it to the podium after falling just short last year.
Sloan and Taylor rounded out the fourth and fifth position respectively. Both the riders failed to make a solid impact in the final after coming up with remarkable performances during the elimination round.
The clash between the two titans, White and Gagnon, turned out to be as electrifying as expected. Despite a handful of talented riders in the field, these two simply stole the show with their exceptional performances.
Tags: