Rodriguez finally rides back atop X Games podium with gold in Skateboard Street

Rodriguez finally skates back to X Games gold

CARSON, Calif. — Paul Rodriguez spent four taxing years trying to get back to the top of the podium at the X Games.

The wait is now over.

Rodriguez won Skateboard Street in Saturday’s 15th edition of the games, his first gold medal in the event since becoming the only person to capture back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005.

“It’s been a huge itch and it finally got scratched,” Rodriguez said. “It feels great.”

The 24-year-old Rodriguez, a Los Angeles native, was in the lead for two of the three sessions before falling behind late in the third. But he still had one trick left in him, nailing a switch heelflip over the 12-step staircase on his second-to-last attempt to finish with a score of 390.

“It was coming down to the wire,” Rodriguez said. “I had to pull something just to stay in contention for the medals.”

Competing in his third X Games, 14-year-old Nyjah Huston of Huntington Beach came in second with a score of 364 and Adam Dyet finished third at 349.

Defending champion and reality TV star Ryan Sheckler was forced out of the contest when he sustained an apparent right ankle injury on his first attempt of the third session and had to be assisted out of the park.

After hitting the pavement he immediately could be heard saying, “It’s broken.”

P.L.G. GETS LUCKY 14: Pierre-Luc Gagnon’s superstition may have just been the extra motivation needed for him to capture gold in Skateboard Vert.

“I’m pretty superstitious,” Gagnon said. “I had 13 X Games medals and was like, ‘Hopefully I can get one more.’ This year was the year, and I just wanted to get away from the number 13.”

Gagnon, from Carlsbad, Calif., ended with a score of 93 to outlast a pair of veterans in a new format that featured a 12-minute running clock with each skater’s two best runs counting toward their final score.

Bucky Lasek was runner-up with a score of 91 and Andy McDonald, of San Diego, was third with an 84.

Gagnon and Lasek were tied entering the latter portion of the contest before Gagnon came through with a difference-making run that featured a move called a “trey flip fakie” in which the board both flips and rotates 360 degrees.

“I just kinda freestyled it after that, it wasn’t really a planned run,” Gagnon said.

BESTWICK BEST YET AGAIN: Jamie Bestwick continued the domination of his event, taking first place for the seventh time in BMX Vert.

Bestwick was nearly perfect in the process, tallying a 49 out of a possible 50 in each of his two final runs.

“I saw the way Jamie rode, and I hate to say it, I knew we were competing for second place,” said Simon Tabron, who took second with a score of 88. “He put down possibly the two best runs I’ve ever seen him do. And really from that point, unless Moses appeared next to the ramp and parted the Red Sea or some other kind of crazy miracle, we were competing for second place tonight.”

Chad Kagy finished third with an 84, giving him 11 career X Games medals.

CRANMER CLAIMS BMX PARK: Scotty Cranmer saved his best for last, executing a near-flawless final run to capture BMX Freestyle Park by the slimmest of margins.

Cranmer pulled a double tailwhip backflip on the step-up section of the course with the seconds ticking away for a score of 132 and a one-point margin over runner-up Diogo Canina.

“We’ve all been riding with each other for a long time,” Cranmer said. “I don’t think we’ve ever been in a final that was that close. It was crazy.”

Canina entered the last leg with a comfortable 10-point lead, only to see his chances for the title disappear.

“Scotty’s a machine,” Canina said. “Of course I wanted gold, growing up you always dream of winning it all, but this is still an amazing feeling.”

The gold was Cranmer’s second in four years and fourth overall medal in the event. Gary Young, of San Diego, finished in third place.