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The British Are Coming . . . Home
BMX Vert Finals
By Bart de Jong
England has always produced some super vert riders. With the LG Action Sports World Tour coming to England it was a home game for both Simon Tabron and Jamie Bestwick. Not only do they ride well at home, they are part of a selective group of vert riders that rule the contests no matter where the vert ramp is set up.
The Birmingham NEC came to an uncomfortable silence when John Parker (USA) knocked himself silly at the end of his run and had to be taken off to hospital on a stretcher. Parker did have a killer first part of his run where he showed no-handers at height, huge tailwhips, a 540 but crashed on a decade air. John was back on site Sunday. Riders had 2 one-minute runs with the best run counting. Parker’s run ended up being good enough for 5th edging out Jason Branham (USA) by only a quarter of a point and Eduardo Terreros (Spain) by another 0.25.
Places three and four turned out to be a USA-England battle. In one corner we had Tom Haugen doing it for the USA and in the other corner was Zach Shaw. Tom threw some punches with tricks that included switch handers, plenty of one-handed x-up variations and an insane superman seat grab air. Zach fought back with table topped 540s, flairs, sweet inverts and x-ups to x-ups. Tom answered with alley-oop no-handers and a toothpick to full barspin out. Zach didn’t give up as he dug deep in his bag of tricks but it was Tom Haugen’s double tailwhip that was the uppercut that ended the fight. Zach 4th, Tom 3rd.
Simon Tabron had a great first run while Jamie Bestwick messed-up a tailwhip flair that he did as his second trick. This left a lot of pressure on him to do well in his last run. Simon had already pulled an awesome run together where he showed how to ride a vert ramp well. Opposite airs, smooth variations at height, a mid-run flair and an alley-oop no-handed 540 were part of it. Simon gave the crowd something special by pulling a 900 too. Jamie was the last rider on the ramp. It was all or nothing.
Watching Jamie ride is special. You just feel he has the control. Next to his super high and smooth variations, he pulled a few big bangers and that includes the trick he crashed on in the first run (tailwhip flair). In the end the difference between the two was half a point. Advantage Bestwick.
