 Lyons has last roar in Skiboarding
by David Boroff, ESPN.com
MOUNT SNOW, Vt. -- The Skiboarding Slopestyle finals at ESPN's Winter X Games came down to the final run of the day. Neal Lyons, who felt he had nothing to lose, gained everything.
Lyons' spectacular performance to end the event earned 75.50 points from the judges and a gold medal in front of a packed, stunned crowd Saturday.
|  | | Mike Nick's score held up for silver. |
Mike Nick, the 1998 Winter X Slopestyle champion, had the lead going into the third and final round after scoring 73.17 points on his second run. When Nick fell during his last attempt, he was still in good shape -- only about six racers were left to try to top his high score.
Since the lowest two scores for each rider was thrown out, everybody had a chance to win. Lyons, who scored 70.17 and 71.83 in his first two runs, was the last skier to go down the mountain in the final round. He was the only skier to score above 70 in each of the first two rounds, but needed to do even better than that to catch Nick.
"If I'm not going to go big, there's no reason to do it," Lyons said of his final run.
Lyons' last run was a thing of beauty. He culminated it with a flat-spin 540 on the final jump of the course.
It's the hardest trick," said Lyons. "I hit it pretty often (in practice), but not as clean as that."
Nicky Adams, who had a sparkling third run, captured the bronze medal with a high score of 72.67. Gergely Peter of Switzerland, competing in his first major event, finished fourth with a terrific third run (72.00), and Manu Pascaud finished fifth with a high score of 69.00.
This was Lyons' first golden moment in his X Games career. The 22-year-old skier from Brampton, Ontario, finished seventh in Triple Air last year.
|
Men's Skiboarding Slopestyle results
|
| Place |
Name |
Run 1 |
Run 2 |
Run 3 |
Total |
| 1. |
Neal Lyons |
70.17 |
71.83 |
75.50 |
75.50 |
| 2. |
Mike Nick |
69.83 |
73.17 |
50.67 |
73.17 |
| 3. |
Nicky Adams |
49.67 |
61.67 |
72.67 |
72.67 |
| 4. |
Gergely Peter |
63.83 |
67.00 |
72.00 |
72.00 |
| 5. |
Manu Pascaud |
69.00 |
68.83 |
65.67 |
69.00 |
| 6. |
Robert Graham |
61.00 |
65.00 |
67.67 |
67.67 |
| 7. |
Brinton Gundersen |
66.83 |
66.83 |
65.00 |
66.83 |
| 8. |
Jean Gagnon |
66.33 |
27.17 |
58.00 |
66.33 |
| 9. |
Serge Maheu |
61.50 |
65.17 |
53.17 |
65.17 |
| 10. |
Peter Mithoefer |
62.83 |
64.67 |
63.83 |
64.67 |
| 11. |
Christopher Hawks |
63.83 |
62.33 |
60.50 |
63.83 |
| 12. |
Cameron Forsythe |
62.83 |
56.50 |
56.17 |
62.83 |
| 13. |
Eric Pollard |
60.50 |
62.50 |
62.17 |
62.50 |
| 14. |
Micah Fisher-Rhoese |
62.17 |
48.00 |
56.00 |
62.17 |
| 15. |
Jarred Flaherty |
48.17 |
50.67 |
61.33 |
61.33 |
| 16. |
Sebastien Lounis |
58.67 |
59.17 |
57.17 |
59.17 |
| 17. |
Bryce Raney |
56.83 |
51.67 |
29.33 |
56.83 |
| 18. |
Hiroshi Kataoka |
39.17 |
37.00 |
47.00 |
47.00 |
|
