PARK FINALS - SUNDAY AUGUST 18, 2002

Okay, I bitched about the lack of indoor coverage of the outdoor events and they politely let me know that they couldn't get a video feed inside, but they tried.

Okay, so I am out here in 100 degree whether on the last legs of my battery in the laptop and keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to get the rest of the runs through without the battery dying on me. From here on out the coverage is live and my typing will be going completely downhill.. sorry.  On the bright side of all this, I found a spot in the shade that they left a cart sitting in and I'm snaking a comfortable seat with a good view of the jumbo tron screen.  Rumor has it that they played the trailer clip from 'Horizons' during flatland finals earlier today, it would be cool to see it again during park finals here.

They are giving the crowd about ten minutes between heats to get really bored, and are now trying to get them psyched up again.  Up now we have...Colin Mackay.  He looks at the course and waves off the camera man.  a whopper attempt to start things off... almost it..  crazy street ridng flatlanders.  A quick invert on the quarter then a turndwon on the hop. A x ujp and then a 360 over the aspine.  He manuals and then drops back into the ramp.  He tries to 50 50 the long rail in the course but goes a little bit sideways. He pumps across the course and hits the hip with a nice invert.  He takes the hop with a flattie and slides out a little bit then ghost rides his bike across the park to finish things off.  Just having fun is what it's all about.  Colin gets a 87.00 (first round) and a 81.60 to put him in 9th spot for now.

Next up is Gary Young who got a 88.20 in the first round.  He is tied for 5th and does a big 360 into the ramp to start off.  He hits a big curved wall ride then comes acrosss the course for a big channel gap invert then a rear wheel bomk on the wall.  He does an opposte trasfre to sprocket the hits the sharkfi and dos a weird 430 tailtap thing on the transtion of the shark fin.  He has some weird lip trick stuff.  He comes across the course and throws a whip down and a 540 on the quarter and finsihes up with a footplant on the wall and a fakie barspin on the quarter.  A very good run.  He seems happy with his run and with a smile on his face he gets a 88.60 to bring it up to sole posession of the 5 spot.

Next rider up is last years gold medallist who is sitting in tenth with a 85.00 - Bruce Crisman. He drops and starts witha  big wall ride over the spine with a 360 x-up.  He comes across and hitsa manual onthe big box to a 50 50 grind across a channel.  Way up high and really tech.  He does a 360 over the hiip and thena does a no-hnder into the shark fin and a truicdriver over the spine.  He transfers into the shark fin then drops out and thrwos a taiwwhip over the hip.  He heads in for his last series and does a barspin flyout and calls it a run.  That will definitely be an improvement on his first run, but it doesn't look like he will have this course down enough for first place this year.  Probably not even enough for a medal contention position.  He gets only a 84.60 and stays in tenth.

Brian Foster is up next and he heads in with a huge wall ride then a 360 flatie he heads up and does a good alley oop footpalnt on the wall.  He is going full tilt and heads aroudn the curved wall ride really high.  He is working this course like a mad man and he comes across and transfers out of the curved wall to the mini.  He hips the spine ramp then 360's the spine and finishes up with a big abubaca on the edge of a subrail.. kind of hard to explain that run.  A lot of jumping though and high speed tricks, but not that much 'street' in his stuff.  More liek a dirt jumper out of his territory.  I would guess that this will still do really well for the speed given for it all.  A 88.00 and a 87.80 this time out for 7th postion for the moment.  He just needs to get more technical and leave the dirt jumps inside when he gets out on the park course because there is so much more to do.  Hardest trick winners in contests get there for tech, not speed.

Up next is Josh Harrington who does a nice icepick x-up then a huge superman seatgrab transfer.  Josh is working the course and does a downside 50 50 grind.  He comes to the top of the roll in a does a barspin to barspin back, bug stuff, but not as much street.  He calls it a run pretty early and probably won't do that well for that run because of the lack of street and the lack of really big stuff.  He does try at the very end a big transfer to a rail about 10 feet away.  He wants it, but his time is up and his run is over.  He got a 87.20 and a 87.60 for 8th spot f.  He can definitely go up from there.

Jay Miron got a 88.20 in round 1 and he is ready to gohe tries a huge doulbe whip 360 to start things off (???) what?  He wants it though and goes to the top to try again.  He drops back in and boom, goes down hard trying it.  Koji looks on and nods his appreciation of that attempt and the slam that went along with it.  Jay may pull one trick this round...  eight seconds left and he drops back in... he wants it.  He drops... DOUBLE TAILWHIP 360 PULLED CLEAN!!!  He works his extra 15 seconds on the course for fun and will proably not scorew well despite the huge trick pulled for the first time ever.  Wonder how long before Mirra will be doing it?  Hmmmm.  The judges say it's a ... well they don't show us on the screen... thanks guys!

Mirra is up next and has a 90.80 and 3rd place for the moment he drops.  He starts with a tailtap then into the shark fin he comes off it with a whip 360 then a 360 back onto the shark fin.  He has aaflat tire and this run will be called quickly or he is going to get a trader bike for the moemtn.  Huge bummer to have that happen to him in the midle of his run.  He His seconds tick away and he rolls onto the course on a loaner.  A quick air and onto the shark finandhe tries a tailwhip to tailtap on the wall.  He finsihes with a big fakie on the quarter but he knows it's not going to be his run.  He does a flair to finish things off... get your bike fixed man!  He calls it a run and gets a ???  Once again, no score shown.  Ah well scores at the bottom.

Well, Nyquist is up and ready to go as his girlfriend looks on.  He's in second with a 91.20 and he barspins in on the shark fin then rokcets no hander back onto it.  He does a doubl ebarspin over the box then flip barspins the spine and a big 360 over the spine the other way.  He heads up the qurethe then does a one foote x-up loop to flyout and barspin back itn.  He does a 540 barspin on the quarter and then comes across and hits a 720 over the spine.  Solid landing and the crowd cheers ihim on loudly.  He put together a really solid run with a lot of really big tricks.  He hangs out to see his score and gets a 93.40 and he moves up into first, he smiles big and is really stoked on that run for sure.

Kagy is up for his next run and he comes in with a flip whip hit perfect.  He then hauls across and does a manual up the BIGGEST bsub box I've ever seen and then manuals across for a barspin back in, really, REALLY big I tell you.  He works through the course witha  lot of flotw and 360 tailwtpas the box.  He hits the quater for speed and does a nice superman and a downside footlant on the wall as the buzzer sounds.  It was a really incredible run, but it was lacking the back to back flow that Ryan was throwing out.  He ends up scoring a solid 89.20 and a 91.80 to move him into the 2nd place position.  But not enough to move him up onto the top spot.

The next rider up is Allistair Whitton who qualified first and can win it all with aspectacular run.  He nods at the crowd and bobs his head to the music.  The crowd erupts with applause and Alistair drops in with a 91.40 currently as his score.  Just in the 3 spot.  He does a quick loop onto the box and a turndown back in.  A big 360 flattie ONTO the platform  Then a turndwon as he transfers across.  He manuse the curved wall then a tire grab ont the quarter.  He goes up the main roll in then 50 50 across the channel.  He does a handplant across the sub rail and a quick disatster.  He flips a hip and then tries a big handplant transfer over the curved wallride.  Probably about five feet from one side to the other so it's almost like a hand plant fastplant thing.  He gets up and is able to walk off under his own opwer but he may have hurt his arm or wrist pretty badly on that one.  He is definitely feeling it and gets a 91.80 to move him up into a tie for second place.

The question of the moment for me... is there only 2 rounds or threee?  Only TWO so that means that Nyquist has grabbed the Gold medal away from Allistair.  A few hours later I got the chance to congratulate Allistair and found out that he needs to go in for X-Rays with either a separated shoulder from his fall or a broken bone.  No final word yet, but he wasn't smiling about his second place finish for the day.  He wanted the big trick and paid the even bigger price, and may not even find himself riding for a while.