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Takeshi Yasutoko © Jared Souney

Inline Skaters Fire Up The Lone Star State

Oct 30 2006 / Dallas, TX
  • Way back at the first X Games over 10 years ago, there were more inline skating events than any other single discipline. That’s not the case anymore. The big action sport events such as Dew Tour, Gravity Games and even X Games have all given up on inline skating. But not the LG Action Sports Championship.
 
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And this weekend was proof that inline skaters are far from being a dying breed of action sports athletes. Dallas fans saw some serious inline skating at the LG Action Sports Championships both in Vert and Street. We saw the Yasutoko brothers battling Shane Yost, Marc Englehart, Cesar Mora and others in Vert. And the biggest names in the business duked it out on the Street course. Half a dozen women competed in Dallas as well, including superstar Fabiola da Silva, the first woman to pull off a double back flip in competition.
 
Inline Vert Finals

Inline Vert riders dropped in on a giant 14-feet halfpipe with two huge roll-ins – both starting at 19-feet high. The biggest names in Vert showed up to Dallas to fight for the World Championship Title including the Yasutoko brothers, Marc Englehart, Rich Parker, Shane Yost and Fabiola da Silva. When the battle was done it was none other than Takeshi Yasutoko on top with a 1st place win. Yasutoko threw out the biggest tricks of the day flying up to the 13-foot marker. Marc Englehart, described by the announcers in Dallas as… and I quote: “the great white hope for the American nation,” killed his run, which landed him a 2nd place finish. Shane Yost, aka the Tazmanian Devil, known for crazy spin tricks rounded out the top three podium spots. 

Inline Street Finals

The women inline skaters started things off with a bang in Dallas on the big course shared by BMXers and skaters all weekend. There were six women competing in Dallas, but only five of them competed in the women’s contest. That’s because Fabiola da Silva chose to compete with the men. With Fabiola out of the way the girls could concentrate on beating each other up in an intense battle for 1st place. Martina Svobodova blew away the competition and took the win followed by the ever-graceful Katie Ketchum and Fallon Heffernan.

The men inline skaters came next and put on an amazing show for the cheering Dallas crowd. These guys came from all over the world including Jeersak Tassorn from Thailand and Soichiro Kanashima from Japan. The boys got mean and threw down huge tricks all over the course. The lights went out in the middle of the contest due to a blown fuse. But, I’m pretty sure it was the energy level of the skaters. Erik Bailey had the winning run of the day and took home the gold while Frenchman Stephane Alfano nabbed 2nd place and Chris Haffey grabbed up 3rd place. And Fabiola da Silva nailed a couple of insane runs to take 4th place.

 
-Steve Lemig