Jamie Bestwick’s first two runs in the final were so flawless they earned him 49 out of a perfect 50 possible points. He went down in his third run—hanging up on the coping of his re-entry into the vert ramp after a lofty 540 tailwhip—walked off the ramp uninjured, but didn’t return to the competition. Fortunately, since the top two best runs in the jam session were what counted, his were enough to earn the 2006 and 2007 BMX Vert gold medal winner his third gold in a row.
 
 “I saw the way Jamie rode, and I hate to say it, I knew we were competing for second place,” said silver medalist Simon Tabron. “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.”
 
 Tabron, who was the first person to land back-to-back 900s in competition in 2007s X Games, also took home his seventh X Games BMX Vert medal tonight. He didn’t try the back-to-back, but threw a one-foot, one-handed 900 into his run, which had never been done in competition. The groundbreaking move was enough to get him into second place.
 
 Chad Kagy, who took home silver in the BMX Big Air on Friday night, wowed the crowd with moves like a flat spin 540 tailwhip to opposite tailwhip flare. His bronze in tonight’s competition brings his total X Games medal tally to 11.
 

BMX Freestyle Vert Final Results
 
 Final results from the BMX Freestyle Vert competition held at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles, Calif. on August 1, 2009.
                
        Name/Rank            Hometown               
 1.    Jamie Bestwick       State College, Pa.
 2.    Simon Tabron         Liverpool, Britain
 3.    Chad Kagy             Gilroy, Calif.
 4.    Jimmy Walker        Ocala, Fla.
 5.    Dennis McCoy        Kansas City, Mo.
 6.    Coco Zurita            Santiago, Chile
 7.    Tim Wood              Brisbane, Australia
 8.    Jay Eggleston         Denver, Colo.
 9.    Kevin Robinson       East Providence, R.I.
 10.  Zack Warden          St. Louis, Mo.


Photos  jsullivan