BMX Dirt Finals
By extremeathletes.com staff

A rare flip

It was the first day for competition in Providence, Rhode Island and more than 55,000 spectators viewed the Aggressive Inline Skating and BMX Dirt events today. After the Downhill Skate events and the Wakeboard event earlier this week, the remainder of the events will be held in the downtown square. The BMX Dirt competition became intense once the U shaped course was completed as the hits and gaps were bigger than expected. After the athletes dropped in from the stage area, onto the straight, the first hit was a 10 foot high (2 line) double with a 30 foot gap that was followed closely by a smaller 20 foot gap and then finished with a another 20 foot double. After the three pack straight, there was a 180 left turn berm-shot that led into a 15 foot high step-up jump and then a long, flat straight that ended at 10 foot hit, 30-foot double jump. The riders pedaled with power to get over the final, finish hit and complete their tricks.

After the Prelims on Wednesday, T.J. Lavin held a slim (.13) point lead over Ryan Nyquist. Following the two by (1) point was Cory Nasatazio, Chris Doyle by (1.13) points and a local kid from Massachusetts trailed in fifth place just (1.86) points behind the leader. The scores get dropped for the Finals, however it is a good indicator at the level of tricks and point accumulation the athletes expect to garner.

On Finals day it was all T.J. Lavin. T.J. was focused and determined to take home the gold this year. Last year at the Gravity Games, T.J. won the Bronze and was disappointed with his performance. This year T.J. put all things aside and went out and performed four, near flawless runs to finish with a score of 95.7. All four runs were above 92.4 points and his closest competitor finished with a 91.9. Chris Doyle put in a superb performance in all of his runs to earn the Silver Medal. He was the most consistent rider next to T.J. Every other athlete made a bobble or two during their runs and it showed in their scores. The local boy from upstate, Massachusetts, Ryan Jordan combined three really solid runs to capture the Bronze Medal. He finished with a score of 90.7 after making an error in his 3rd run.

The disappointments of the day had to be for Ryan Nyquist and Cory Nasatazio. The second and third qualifiers had uncharacteristic days. Nyquist bobbled on his second and fourth runs to score an 89.4, while Nasatazio attempted a double back flip on his fourth and final run. In a courageous move, Cory new he needed to pull the double to take the Gold from T.J. and he went for it on his final run. Unfortunately he missed his landing and it shot his score. Then, about ten minutes later after the finals were completed, "Nasty" peddled up to the hit and landed the double back flip in front of the Medal winners and media conglomerate!

* For a more detailed description of the athlete tricks, please see the Shaun Butler (play-by-play) BMX Dirt Final Run

BMX Dirt Final Results