The first day of competition at X Games 16 was an interesting one for the Metal Mulisha. The boys came in confident and ready to take their share of medals in the Freestyle Moto X event. Unfortunately the elimination round early Thursday at the LA Coliseum was just that…the round where a lot of guys got eliminated! Ya, it sucked.
Jacko crashed HARD while coming up a little short on a backflip, swapping out and slamming. He was slow to get up and was carted to the med center. Jacko messed up his shoulder and got a pretty good concussion. He is out for X Games Best Trick.
Jeremy Twitch Stenberg had a disappointing heat. On his first of 3 runs he had a dead sailor which got him a low first score. Twitch was ready to come back and nail the next 2 runs in order to qualify for the finals. Unfortunately Twitch dislocated his ankle midway through the run. Check out this video of Twitch explaining what happened. Bummed. But he should be good to go tonight for Best Whip!
Todd Potter had some bad luck in his qualifier. Seems like every run Potter had a small mistake that messed up his flow, and after that he just started throwing some of his Gold Medal winning whips for fun. BTW, Potter is guaranteeing Gold in Best Whip…I believe he can do it. But Twitch and JG33 want it bad too! Definitely some friendly shit talking and side bets going on in the pits all day.
Jeff OX Kargola made it into the Freestyle competition as an alternate and he was ready to make the most of it. Ox was riding well, but just couldn’t quite link it all together for the score he is capable of.
Taka Higashino was killing it. I’m still not sure how he didn’t make it into the next round. He was smooth, throwing big tricks on every jump, and was the only guys to throw the double grab flip! Tons of photos of Taka in the X Games FMX photo gallery.
The man of the hour was Rob Adelberg! Rob is the newest Metal Mulisha recruit and an X Games rookie, but he rode like a vet and a bad ass! Rob made it to the next round no problem. Check out some of his HUGE tricks in the photo gallery….
Robbie Maddison was on point in the qualifying round. Maddo was throwing down the “Volt” body varial consistently in every run and qualified 2nd, just 1 point behind Travis Pastrana.
So, the two Ausie Robbies in the Mulisha Family advanced to the round of 8 for a chance to make it to the 4 man finals. Adelberg rode consistently and well enough to get 5th place! He didn’t get to the 4 man final, but 5th place in his first X Games is awesome! Congrats Rob!!!
Maddo was on track to challenge Pastrana for the win. In his 1st run he nailed it and scored a 40. In his 2nd run, Maddo slammed hard on a body varial. Just like that he went from a contender for the win to watching from the sidelines in pain. Sorry Maddo…tough luck. But there is a chance Maddo could be back for best trick, so wish him better luck tonight!
Check out the X Games Freestyle photo gallery for all the goods! Keep checking back for updates on every event the Metal Mulisha competes in at X Games.
I’m sure a lot of you have heard about the horrible tragedy at the MDR California 200 night race. 8 killed and 12 injured when a race truck went out of control into the crowd. This hits close to home for us and our fans, and we know all too well it sometimes comes with the territory in dirt bikes, off-road and racing, but it doesn’t lessen the pain when something like this happens. The good thing about our community is that we rally and help those in need. Now is that time.
