X GAMES ROUNDUP: STRONG FINISH EARNS MIRRA SECOND GOLD.

Byline: Keith Lair Staff Writer

Dave Mirra was in last place heading into his final run in the X Games Bicycle Stunt Park finals outside of Staples Center on Saturday afternoon.

But the 30-year-old from Greenville, N.C., put together a nearly flawless run to steal the gold medal from Ryan Nyquist in front of a standing-room only crowd of about 5,000.

The run of 94.00 gave Mirra his second gold medal in less than 24 hours and expanded his X Games medal count to 18, of which 13 are gold. On Friday night, he broke a medals-record tie with Tony Hawk. He is the game's only double-medal winner thus far.

``I was lucky,'' Mirra said of his run. ``It was exactly what I wanted to do.''

Mirra crashed and burned on his first run, while Nyquist, who was going for his third consecutive gold in the event, soared to a leading score of 92.66.

``I gave up on that run,'' Mirra said. ``It was not good.''

Right out of the box, he tried a rear-wheel stand on the hitching post. However, the frame got caught on the post, and the bike tumbled over. He tried it again and the front wheel hit the post, causing a second crash. He then tried doing a bunny hop into a backflip off the wall, only to fall.

But then he put it together. He completed a backflip turn down, a trick he had never attempted before, and nailed a number of 360 tailwhips. On another flip, he inadvertently landed onto a ramp 90 degrees to his right and pedalled off.

``It was getting pretty crazy,'' he said. ``After (Friday night), the pressure was off. I was just trying to get a top five. I was just lucky to pull them through.''

That put the pressure back on Nyquist. He tried to do an 820 twice, to no avail.

--Dominant duo: The odds favored one of the Yasutoko brothers to win gold in Aggressive In-line Skate Vert.

And why not? Brothers Eito and Takeshi have won four of the past five golds in vert. They have three second-place finishes in those five years, accounting for eight of the potential 10 1-2 finishes.

The younger Takeshi completed a double Viking flip, the first of its kind, to win his second vert solo gold Saturday. He had a score of 95.75.

--Top teen: Lin-Z Adams Hawkins became the youngest winner at the X Games this year when she won the women's Skateboard Vert competition Saturday.

The 14-year-old from Encinitas completed a kickflip indy grab, never done before by a woman, to win the 30-minute jam session. She also did a rocket to a fakie 360 and a backside nollie.

Cara-Beth Burnside of Encinitas completed an inverted air plant and feeble grind to fakie for second. Mimi Knoop of Chesapeake, Va. took third.

--Beast from the East: The East Coast is still the dominant surfing team in the West.

C.J. Hobgood of Satellite, Fla., and Kelly Slater of Cocoa Beach, Fla., got the East Coast team out to a first quarter lead en route to a 97.03-90.02 victory over the West Coast in The Game in front of about 30,000 at Huntington Beach Pier.

Hobgood, the second-ranked surfer in the world rode waves of 6.52, 6.32 and 4.25 and Slater rode a wave of 5.92. Dane Reynolds of Ventura had the largest score, riding an 8.20.

Last week, Taj Burrow of Australia defeated Cory Lopez of Indian Beach Rocks, Fla., at the U.S. Open, held at the same site as Saturday's competition.

Keith Lair, [phone]

keith.lair(at)sgvn.com