X Games 15 - Park Qualifying Results, Highlights, & Photos

FatTony

• July 30 2009
• 7 comments

Words by Fat. Photos by Fat, Daniel, and Jeff Z.

Park qualifying was all about the lines and transfers today as Gary Young scored the top qualifying position. Rob Darden and Scotty Cranmer trailed right behind him, and of course last year’s gold medalist Daniel Dhers made it through prelims as well. Check out the full results along with some of the highlights and our photo gallery from X Games 15’s park qualifying.

Park eliminations followed a jam format that looked like this:

Four heats (five riders in each) got a total of 15 minutes to ride. Riders took turns riding the park in 30 second intervals. Judges scored each run and the top four (I think?) runs of their session were added together to make a final score. Again, I know it’s confusing—hell, I don’t even fully understand it—but the bottom line is that the people who ride the best make it to the next round, which is the finals on Saturday.

Now on to the highlights:

- Gary Young always rides fast and this contest was no different. He had the biggest and most unique transfer lines on the course and really flowed everything how the ramp designers meant for it to be ridden.
- Rob Darden also had great lines and a few transfers, but of course he has a good variety of tricks and style too—his one-handed tables are becoming the best out there.
- Scotty Cranmer flaired over the capsule in the middle of a flawless run.
- Jeremiah Smith filled his runs with back to back tricks, mostly on the outer edges of the course and the spine section. No-hander to barspin on the hip, superman seatgrab on the quarter, 360 whip over the spine…lots of good stuff.
- Chase Hawk was the one everyone was saying to watch out for on this course. He had great flowing lines, huge 270 and 360 transfers and variations, and did an enormous 180 onto one of the flyout jumps.
- Ryan Guettler is on a roll as of late and destroyed the course today with tricks like a superman flip over the box, flairs, great lines around the hips, and more.
- Diogo Canina also flaired over the capsule and did a flip-whip over the box (brakeless).
- Daniel Dhers isn’t a big fan of this course and only hit one line during his session. But each time he hit the line he did all of his big tricks back to back, changing up the variations slightly each visit the the course. 720 variations, flair variations, and whip variations just as we expected from last year’s gold medalist…
- Dennis Enarson used the flyout jumps like a box jump, pulling tons of tricks, and also flip-whipped the box. Keep in mind this “box” is cement, has rounded edges making the “lip” and “landing” weird, and you have to find a line to get speed to hit it.
- Corey Bohan snuck into the finals at the last minute with great brakeless flow mixed with stylish tricks in both directions, and even flairs, whips, and a frontflip up one of the fly out stepups.
- Garrett Reynolds was fighting Bohan for that last qualifying spot, but couldn’t make it happen even though he rode like the machine that he is with non-stop barspin, tailwhip, no-hander, and spinning tricks.
- Chris Doyle is always a treat to watch, and even though he has some of the best 360 inverts in the business, it wasn’t enough to make the top 10.
- Mark Webb was injured last year and couldn’t make it to X Games so he was psyched to ride in it this year. His nose-dive 360s over the spine are out of this world, and a few of his runs looked like the wild Web videos you know him for. He even threw tech moves in there like an icepick to 270 on the Jersey barrier.
- Josh Perry whipped into the big slant wall out of a manual.
- Alistair Whitton did a flip-whip up one of the step up fly outs and also did a superman flip up the same thing.
- Morgan Wade went down hard on a 720 straight to his ass, but still got up and tried a wild air into the capsule—think Ruben/bugsplat wallride style… It was wild, but he didn’t land it.

Most riders stuck to the outer edges of the course, using the hips, berm, and fly out jumps, and a few really took to the spine section. But the guys who placed the best really found unique lines and transfers, and obviously that’s what the judges are looking for in this competition.

X Games 15 - Park Qualifying Results (Top Ten Make It To Finals)
1. Gary Young - 133
2. Rob Darden - 130
3. Scotty Cranmer - 128
4. Jeremiah Smith - 127
5. Chase Hawk - 125
6. Ryan Guettler - 125
7. Diogo Canina - 116
8. Daniel Dhers - 116
9. Dennis Enarson - 115
10. Corey Bohan - 114
—-
11. Garrett Reynolds - 111
12. Chris Doyle - 108
13. Mark Webb - 108
14. Colin Mackay - 107
15. Josh Perry - 104
16. Dave Dillewaard - 102
17. Alistair Whitton - 96
18. Morgan Wade - 94
19. Brian Foster - 92
20. Van Homan - 80

See all of Ride BMX’s X Games 15 Coverage

Additional information at xgames.com