The BMX Vert Competition dominated by the flying Brit
By Brooke Geery
For the fourth time in so many years Jamie Bestwick took the gold in BMX Vert at the LG Action Sports Championships. It wasn’t just that some of Bestwick’s biggest competition all seemed to have a bad day — athlete_link here starts infobox Kevin Robinson went down hard on an opposite flair, Chad Kagy bailed on a barspin to tailwhip, Steven McCann fell on a 540 tailwhip – it was that Bestwick was riding that well.
Arguably the best vert rider in the business, Bestwick was on fire, perhaps fueled by his recent defeat at the Orlando Dew Tour. He soared a solid two feet over his nearest competitors and stocked his run with flair variations, whips, and combo variations. In addition to just about every other trick known to man, highlights included a downside tailwhip flair, a huge invert 540, and perhaps the largest downside tailwhip ever done.
“I think everybody thought that after I got second at the Dew Tour that that was it,” he said. “Fortunately I am a little bit more resilient than that and I’ve been around long enough. Coming into this thing I knew exactly what to do. I’ve won this thing three times before and it’s not through some fluke.”
Simon Tabron sat in third after his first run, but took home a silver medal after throwing in a 900 in his next run. Chad Kagy was having an amazing run — which included his flatspin whip — until a bobble on a bar spin to tailwhip sent him pummeling to the flat bottom of the ramp. The crash impacted his ribs on the same side of his body as the shoulder that had just recently recovered from being broken at X Games. But despite the big crash, Kagy had thrown down enough tricks to nab a bronze medal, without even dropping into the ramp a second time.
Throughout the rest of the field, more big tricks went down. Steven McCann attempted a 540 whip, and landed a huge barspin to tailwhip. Koji Kraft impressed the crowd with several switch-hand no-footed combos. Other highlights included John Parker’s big no handed 540 and Zack Warden’s bike flip (and pink shirt).
The LG Action Sports World Championships conclude the arduous BMX Vert contest circuit, which Bestwick has definitely dominated.
“It’s been a great year,” Bestwick said. “It shows all the hard work that I put in at Woodward Camp and all the guys I ride with everyday – they know who they are – they’re not the big names like everybody seems to think, but they mean the world to me. This was a great event, I hope to have another great one next year, and I’ll be back in full force.”