
Earlier in the event, Sinclair watched Thomas Pagès stretchered off to
the medical hut after becoming the first man to attempt a frontflip in
competition only to lose control of his bike and hit the ground hard.
The 24-year-old from Melbourne then kept his cool despite the 41-degree heat and landed two double backflips in the main event.
Sinclair
didn’t get away with it completely, and the man from Down Under had to
be helped off his bike after both tricks as the hard landing from a
height of 10 metres had resulted in serious bruising of the
Australian’s bones.
“There has never been a double backflip in
competition before. I don’t really care about the fact I was eliminated
in the semis – I’m just happy I’m more or less healthy!”
At
least he leaves Texas in better shape than his countryman Robbie
Maddison who dislocated a shoulder after landing heavily before then
popping it back in himself. “I couldn’t stop. The fans were just
phenomenal and I really wanted to show one more trick.”
Sinclair’s
withdrawal meant defending champion Mat Rebeaud progressed to the final
– after eliminating championship leader Eigo Sato, beaten finalist in
both previous rounds – in the semi.
But the Swiss lost to Nate
Adams who was magnanimous in victory: “Red Bull X-Fighters is the very
top of FMX. There is nothing like winning against such world-class
athletes.”
Eigo Sato now leads the overall standing of the
international FMX tour with 215 points, closely followed by Mat Rebeaud
(210 points) and Robbie Maddison (145 points).