ASPEN — Aussie Jarryd Hughes dominated men’s boardercross Sunday, winning two heats and the final to earn his first X Games medal after coming off the alternate list for a second year in a row.
Hughes’ Australian teammate Alex Pullin, a two-time world champion, took silver, his first X Games medal. Pullin stole the lead from Hughes in the middle of the 4,060-foot cross course, but Hughes tucked tight and powered from third to first at the finish line.
It was a dramatic finish, with five of the six finalists sliding across the finish line.
“It was a tough race and everyone was killing it,” Hughes said. “I made a lot of mistakes that last run but I just raced my race and did it.”
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Hughes was in Germany last week for a World Cup race, but said “all I could think about was winning gold here.”
Konstantin Schad of Germany took bronze, edging past American Trevor Jacob who jostled into a podium position halfway through the race but was pushed wide to the outside on a final banked turn, dashing his hopes for a medal.
Four-time world champion Lindsey Jacobellis — the most decorated boardercross racer ever — won her 10th X Games gold medal. She has won gold seven times since 2008 (she was out because of injuries in 2012 and ’13).
Jacobellis took a strategic approach to this year’s race.
“Throughout the whole week I was really analyzing different lines and different jump tactics because I knew I would not probably have the fastest start and I wanted to have other tricks in my bag and options throughout the whole course,” said the 30-year-old from Vermont.
Jacobellis tucked tight while leading the entire final, but the Czech Republic’s Eva Samkova, who famously won gold in the 2014 Sochi Olympics with a mustache painted on her face, pressured Jacobellis, finishing a 10th-of-a-second behind to claim her second X Games silver since 2014.
France’s Nelly Moenne Loccoz took bronze for the second consecutive year.
