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Let’s hear it for the rookie! Monster Energy congratulates Jose Torres from Argentina on claiming the bronze medal in BMX Park at X Games Minneapolis 2019 on Saturday. In front of an energetic crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis, the 24-year-old from Cordoba, Argentina, took home his first X Games medal and became the first rider from Argentina to medal in BMX. Saturday’s BMX action kicked off on the full-featured concrete bowl course with Men’s BMX Park. In the 15-minute finals session featuring the weekend’s top six riders, the recipe for success was going big and stacking as many tricks as possible into flawless runs. Maintaining good flow and speed was also key, as the vast concrete bowl course offered lots of obstacles to cover, including rails, boxes, bowl corners, vert sections, and spine ramps in only 30 seconds per run.

Torres came into the competition as a rookie, having just earned his ticket to Minneapolis in the Boise Road to X Games qualifier in July. Last year, Torres was sidelined from competing at X Games Minneapolis by a wrist injury sustained directly after qualifying. But this year, there was no holding back the 24-year-old.

In the intense final session, Torres covered the entire course in trick-heavy runs featuring downside tailwhip, barspin backflip over the spine, barspin wheelie over the box, double tailwhip into the bank, wall bash barspin, flair barspin, as well as high-flying 360 barspin and frontflip over centerpiece box. The judges rewarded his technical moves and consistency with the bronze medal, which Torres accepted