FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

the quarter-finals one more chance to make it to the event’s semi-final round as the Lucky Loser. Knowing he had only one run to beat Satterfield, Banasiewicz attempted – for the first time in his life – a double front flip over the first jump and landed it with ease. It was more than enough to advance him to the next bracket of the Battle Back Round against Austin Coleman (Lake Forest, Calif.) and Mike Spinner (Miami, Fla.)

Mere hours before the competition, Coleman had returned from the emergency room where he received stitches in his tongue from a cut he sustained during practice earlier that day. He crashed during his Battle Back Round run, leaving Banasiewicz to contend with Spinner for the last event semi-finals spot. Wanting the choice to be clear, Banasiewicz attempted another double front flip, this time following it up with a tail-whip over the second jump and a double tail-whip off the quarter-pipe. The run advanced him past Spinner and brought him back into the main competition’s semi-finals round against Byron.

Executing a third run with a double front flip over the first jump, Banasiewicz rode into the finals along with Foster. Even though he saw Foster go down with a hard landing in his first finals run, which ultimately took him out of the competition, Banasiewicz attempted a fourth double front-flip. It was unsuccessful, but he threw down a clean, skillfully executed second run which won him the title.

“Tonight was the first time I had ever tried the double-front,” revealed Banasiewicz. “I was with Napolitan recently and I watched him do it. And, I wanted to do something big for the fans and the ASA, so I thought, ‘why not’?” Napolitan executed the first-ever double front flip at X Games 15. What’s next for Banasiewicz? “A couple of runs with combination doubles,” was his response.