Wednesday, August 16

In-line gets off the street

By DJ Murphy
ESPN.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- Aggressive in-line skating will again be contested in the shadow of the Bay Bridge as competitors arrived on Piers 30-32 Wednesday and practiced under cloudless skies for Thursday's prelims in ESPN's sixth X Games.

There are several changes to this year's event beginning with the newly christened "Park" course. The Street discipline has changed its name presumably because there's not a street in the world with the perfect ramps, rails, coping and table tops that exist on the course here along the Embarcadero. In Park, six women will be mixed into the field of 20 men so all 26 skaters will compete in one Park event. The women will be ranked separately from the men, but if a woman scores high enough to make the cut for the finals, she will compete against the men. In the most recent X Trials, held in Nashville, Tenn., Fabiola Da Silva not only made the finals in this event against some of the top men, she also nabbed a bronze medal. Finally, Vert triples, which was contested last year, has been dropped from the Games.

Vert
The Vert competition has a definite international flavor. Twenty-four competitors hail from eight different countries with two Japanese brothers (Ito and Takeshi Yasutoko) leading the way. "I don't know where they learned to skate," said Matt Salerno of the Yasutokos' heavenly style. "Mars or something. That must be why they're so good."

Eito Yasutoko figures to medal in Vert.

The brothers will face stern tests from Salerno, as well as other Aussies like Shane Yost, Cesar Mora and Taig Khris of France. Look for young guns Tobias Bucher and Nel Martin to make some noise as they try to break the hammerlock the top six have put on the rest of the Vert field lately.

Katie Brown will try to unseat Da Silva as the undisputed juggernaut of women's in-line but chances are the Brazilian will top the podium again.

Park
Men and women will compete against each other in the Park event this year. The women will only be ranked against one another. However, if a woman scores high enough overall to make the cut she will compete directly against the men (or other women) who make the finals. While Fabiola medalled recently in a combined Vert event against some top men, she has not done so in Park.

Salt Lake City native Jaren Grob should be taking his hard-charging style to the podium this year if he can keep his feet. He takes risks and goes big so this isn't a forgone conclusion. Sven Boekhorst of the Netherlands has ridden cosistency and a technical style to four straight first place results and will be very hard to top. Aaron Feinberg won X Games gold as a 16-year-old in 1997. His intensity could carry him to the podium once again. Texan Shawn Robertson is another skater who throws big tricks and could land on the podium if he lands on his feet. Salerno has had a somewhat disappointing season in Park but he's committed to the discipline and his experience can't be discounted.

Competition gets underway with Park prelims on Thursday.