Freestyle Motocross Step-Up
By the extremeathletes.com staff

Clowers sets World Record Height

Clowers goes bigger than anyone.....

The largest crowd yet, gathered for the Freestyle Motocross Step-Up contest of the X-Games at the end of the pier. Fans witnessed a new World Record set for jump height as Tommy Clowers took home the Gold Medal and $10,000 first place prize. Sixteen Motocross athletes started jumping over the pole set at a length above the flat ground until just one guy remained jumping up and over the pole. The athletes would line up on top of a hill and get a rolling start into a pit and gas it up a jump that has about three feet of vert to propel straight up and over a bar. If the rider knocks down the bar, they have a second chance of clearing the height. If he misses, he's out of the event.

The bar was set at 23 feet to start the competition and every rider was able to make it up over the bar until the distance was set to 29 feet high. This round eliminated Colin Morrison, Trevor Vines and Mike Metzger. Colin and Trevor hit the bar, while Metz pulled out when his back started hurting from the hard landings attributed from falling straight down from 30 feet. At the 30 feet round, Clifford Adotante and Shawn Highland didn't advance on and at the 31 foot round Travis Patrana and Adam Pierce failed to move past the bar. Highland was taken to the hospital for an examination on his ankle due to a spectacular get off and it didn't look as though Pastrana had the horsepower on his 125 machine to get the height needed.

Five riders remained in the competition at the 32 feet height. Brian Deegan, Jeff Tilton, Mike Cinqmars, Kris Rourke and Tom Clowers were all ready to go the distance and see who could out jump the others. Tilton and Cinqmars dropped out at 32 1/2 feet and all three advancing riders continued past 33 feet. Clowers pulled out all mighty height when he leaped up 34 feet to capture the Gold. Deegan and Rourke weren't able to duplicate the height set by Clowers and Rourke out jumped Deegan to walk away with the Silver.