First day of X Games 18 in Los Angeles went out confirming this huge event as a perfect ground for freestyle sport’s record breaks. No matter they’re riding a skateboard, a bmx or even driving a car, you can be sure you’ll see something never done before!

The main, Medal Event, for the 28 of July was the FMX Finals, seeing the hottest ever Taka Higashino takin’ gold with a score of 93.33 (I saw video of him training, I was doubtless he would have gone big in competition) and unleashing on the first run the first ever landed backflip rock solid double grab, not to mention this crazy air popped during the contest..kiss of death flip, superman no hander, heel-clicker flip, just to name a few of them. Here’s the full result of the contest:

RANK  & BEST SCORE 
1 Taka Higashino   93.33
2 Levi Sherwood    91.66
3 Javier Villegas  88.66
4 Nate Adams       88.66
5 Blake Williams   88.33
6 Adam Jones       88.00
7 Rob Adelberg     86.33
8 Dany Torres      84.33
9 Todd Potter      84.00
10 Andre Villa     78.00

On Skateboarding Big Air Qualification, best run was for Rony Gomes, but the show was made by 15yrs old Mitchie Brusco and his first 900 ever landed in X Games history. Obviuosly if you ever heard of Tom Schaar you won’t be surprised he landed consequently two 900 in the successive runs. Well, still not enough to beat the score of the young Alex Sorgente that got 7th place
However a shotout to the kids is needed, considering that four of the finalist are under 16, including the 11 years old Jagger Eaton (younger rider of X Games) that opened the comp with a crazy backflip over channel!
The 11 qualifiers will battle for a chance for the gold against actual medal holder Bob Burnquist in tonite finals, stay tuned cause there will be a crazy show!

RANK & BEST SCORE
1 Rony Gomes              90.00
2 Jake Brown             89.33
3 Edgard Pereira         89.00
4 Lincoln Ueda           88.33
5 Elliot Sloan           88.33
6 Mitchie Brusco         87.66
7 Alex Sorgente          87.33
8 Tom Schaar             87.00
9 Nolan Munroe          85.00
10 Jagger Eaton          82.66
11 Italo Penarrubia      82.66
12 Martin Andre         82.33
13 Jono Schwan          81.00
14 Trey Wood             77.00
15 Jussi Korhonen      76.66
16 Jocke Olsson          23.33

Photocredit: (c) Jörg Mitter, (c) Daniel Grund, (c) Andreas Schaad, (c) Sebastian Marko/Global Newsroom/Red Bull Content Pool

The best 12 freestyle motocross athletes met in the modern Circus Maximus of the Rome’s Stadio Olimpico on Friday. 45,000 spectators cheered all the riders, but is Nate Adams (USA) who did the best performance to earn the title as the new Roman Caesar. Andre Villa (NOR) took second place and whiz kid Josh Sheehan (AUS) came out of nowhere to take third place in the third stop of the 2011 Red Bull X-Fighters Tour.

Nate Adams and Andre Villa struggled in a very exciting final showdown battle and the crowd went mad. Adams got off 18 flawless jumps within the 120-second time limit to win over the five-member gladiator jury, picking up his fifth victory in the 11-year history of the Red Bull X-Fighters. “Now I’m going for the Tour title,” Natan said afterwards. “It was the most difficult win in my career after I had a crash in Qualifying.”

This was the biggest FMX course ever built in Italy (11 kickers and 8 dirt landings). The riders pushed themselves to their limits, jumping distances of up to 30 meters and as high as 15 meters. Dany Torres (ESP), who won in Rome last year, crashed in the second round and his bike veered off the course into a barrier. “I came here with five broken bones that weren’t quite healed but nevertheless won the Qualifying round,” he said. “Judging by the way my right ankle feels right now, I think I’ll be leaving Rome with six broken bones.” The brave Spaniard was nevertheless confident he would be ready to battle for the victory at the next stop in front of his home crowd in Madrid.

Adams widened his lead in the overall 2011 Red Bull X-Fighters standings, following a third place in Dubai (UAE) and victories in Brasilia (BRA) and Rome, to 40 points over Villa. The Norwegian still has plenty of time to catch Adams in the three remaining stops in Madrid (ESP/July 15), Poznan (POL/August 6) and Sydney (AUS/September 17).

Final Result Red Bull X-Fighters Rome 2011

1. Nate Adams (USA)
2. Andre Villa (NOR)
3. Josh Sheehan (AUS)
4. Blake Williams (AUS)
5. Dany Torres (ESP)
6. Eigo Sato (JAP)
7. Adam Jones (USA)
8. Robbie Maddison (AUS)
9. Javier Villegas (CHL)
10. Maikel Melero (ESP)
11. Massimo Bianconchini (ITA)
12. Clinton Moore (AUS)

Standings(after 3 of 6 events):

1. Adams (USA/265 points)
2. Villa (NOR/225)
3. Torres (ESP/145)
4. Maddison (AUS/135)
5. Blake Williams (AUS/135)

Photocredit: (c) Jörg Mitter, (c) Daniel Grund, (c) Andreas Schaad, (c) Sebastian Marko/Global Newsroom/Red Bull Content Pool