9. JARRYD MCNEILL’S
STEP-UP
Aussie Jarryd McNeill added another
gold medal to the three he won in 2015
and 16 - and did it so emphatically that
it was almost a little embarrassing for
his competition. After switching to a
YZ450F for the event over his preferred
YZ250, the scrawny 26-year-old
elected to not attempt a jump until
right at the end of the event when the
bar was perched at 44ft. The thing
is, he made it look ridiculously easy
with his silky-smooth style, launching
several feet over the bar and riding
away with a triumphant fist in the air.
£ While others
struggled to
clear the bar,
Jarryd McNeill
was out-jumping
the entire setup.
McNeill’s launch is the second-
highest jump on record behind Ronnie
Renner’s mammoth 47ft effort in 2012,
but he’s already thrown the challenge
to organisers to up their game next
year.
“I was going higher than that in
practice,” he laughed. “Next year
they’re going to have to get higher
poles for me! About a month before
X Games a digger got dropped at my
house and we went to work with the
goal of dominating Step-Up, and that’s
just what we did.”
Soon afterward, McNeill turned his
bike inside out on his way to silver in
Best Whip, but crashed hard while
boosting to the moon in Quarter-Pipe
practice, and had to sit out the new
contest with an injured hip.
10. KYLE BALDOCK
DEFENDS GOLDEN
PEDALS
In the second-to-last contest of the
entire, new-look X Games, six-time
BMX gold medallist, Kyle Baldock,
successfully defended his crown in the
BMX Park Best Trick and again took
home the Dave Mirra golden pedals.
Baldock’s flawless 720 Double Tailwhip
over the box – the same trick he won
with last year – scored him a 93.66,
one point clear of good friend and
fellow Australian Logan Martin.
Baldock, who was a good mate of
Mirra’s, was very emotional afterwards
during his winner’s speech.
“Man, no words could tell you what
I’m feeling right now, but I wanted to
send it for Mirra like he used to send
it for us,” he said, fighting back the
tears. “Taking the gold with the Seven
Double again, man, I couldn’t be more
stoked.” t
54 | FreestyleXtreme.com
£ Baldock’s
prize for Best
Trick makes for 8
X Games medals
in total, with 6 of
them gold.