Steve McCann emerges triumphant in BMX Freestyle Big Air final – X Games 17 update
The first day of X Games 17 wrapped up with a thrilling final of BMX Freestyle Big Air at Lot 7 outside STAPLES Centre in Los Angeles, California, on Thursday, July 28.
Coming up with an outstanding final run, Australia’s Steve McCann managed to secure the highest spot on the podium to take home the gold medal. Another renowned Australian freestyle BMX rider, Vince Byron, collected silver, while California’s Chad Kagy
took bronze medal.
Aside from the three podium finishers, the list of invited riders also included Anthony Napolitan, Colton Satterfield, Jed Mildon and Zack Warden. With such a star-studded line-up, the competition promised intense action.
The final turned out to be full of crashes and injuries as the riders sought to impress the judges. McCann remained the only rider to complete the first run cleanly. However, that remained the only highpoint of his performance for the next two hours, as
neither the second nor the third run finished without a major hiccup.
Not losing faith in himself or the trick that he had already failed to execute successfully in both the second and third run, McCann went for the no-handed double front-flip once again in his fourth run and this time landed it cleanly. He followed it up
with a double tower, soaring 16 feet into the air. The outstanding run earned him a score of 91.66 to seal the fate of the contest in his favour.
The 21-year-old Byron got off to a shaky start, but found his momentum soon after his disappointing first two to land an impressive run, which included a double tower back-flip. The run earned him a score of 90.66, allowing him to take the lead.
However, he was unable to go for his third and fourth run after breaking the crossbar of his bike and refusal to ride on a substitute bike. He eventually took home the silver medal for his remarkable second-run, the only one that he landed completely during
the final.
The 32-year-old defending event champion Kagy collected 89.33 off his first run. The Californian ended up fracturing his right femur after the landing of his double back-flip went bad. He was looked after by the medical staff on the field for 15 minutes
before getting carried off the field.
The staff had to take extra caution because Kagy had a history of neck injuries and they did not want to risk anything. The injury caused the American the chance of defending the title, though he received some compensation with his first-run score carrying
him to the bronze.
The Australians were turning out to be the dominant force during the current edition of X Games. It would be interesting to see whether the American action sports athletes would be able to reclaim the spotlight next year or would they once against succumb
to the international force that has recently announced himself in the biggest stage of extreme sports.
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