Jamie Bestwick Takes His First Panasonic Open Title

Jun 28 2007 / Baltimore, MD

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Jamie Bestwick has done it again, winning his fifth consecutive AST Dew Tour event, and his first-ever Panasonic Open.  It was a close match, however, with Chad Kagy coming in at only half-a-point behind, despite having only one run thanks to a big crash that knocked him out of the competition.

The competition was plagued with problems, with wind and weather conditions knocking back the start times of the prelims over and over again.  Bestwick acknowledged the issues right at the beginning of the event.

"This has been a long week," he said.  "A lot of the guys are a little bit tired from having the contest on and off then on again."

PHOTO GALLERY    Get a look at the 2007 BMX Vert Finals, including Chad Kagy (abovve), Jamie Bestwick, Simon Tabron and more... View Gallery>

Once the event started there were plenty of thrilling moments, including Zack Warden breaking out a new trick, Dennis McCoy cracking the top five and Steven McCann making good on his recent Vert training and finishing in the top five.

Also surprising was the poor showing by Kevin Robinson and Simon Tabron.  K-Rob crashed on both his runs, finishing well out of the running, and Tabron didn't have much better luck, crashing on both runs, including a nasty-looking slam when trying to land a 900.

Even before Kagy's crash, which saw him taken to the hospital for further observation, most riders were already subdued, thinking of Stephen Murray who had a terrible crash Friday in the BMX Dirt finals.

"All our thoughts and prayers and love is with Stephen Murray tonight and his family.  God bless him and we're all thinking about him,"  Bestwick said.

Even with victory, Bestwick could only celebrate so much.

"I'm so bummed that Kagy crashed.  It's been a rough week," he said. 

However, he was happy to get the elusive Panasonic Open title.

"I don't have that trophy... I have it now."

Check out the full results from the finals - Full BMX Vert Results - 2007 Panasonic Open