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Harf, Friday Win X Games

Danny Harf and Dallas Friday both rode their way to a fourth X Games gold medal at the Long Beach Marine Stadium Saturday morning. X Games 10 Wakeboard Men’s gold medalist Phillip Soven narrowly edged out Josh Sanders for the silver medal. Sanders, in his fourth X Games, medaled for the first time taking the bronze. Emily Copeland Durham took home the silver medal in the women’s competition, with Tara Hamilton capturing the bronze.

Harf, a 20-year-old California native who now lives in Orlando, put together a clean winning sequence of tricks including a switch 540, a regular heelside 720, nuclear whirly bird, a moby dick to a nuclear crow mobe grab method 540 and a slob 180, and was punctuated by a switch 900 with a heelside grab off of a double-up.

“I feel great about winning this year, because last year I had such a rough time,” said Harf, referring to X Games 10 when he finished 9th, missing the finals completely. “It feels good to come back from such bad bounces last year. The X Games is a great showcase for the sport and it’s great to come out and show off a bit for the kids. Hopefully they’ll be the ones to take it to the next level.”

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Friday, the 2005 ESPY winner for women’s action sports athlete, rode to a record third straight gold medal (her fourth overall) with a run beginning with a huge OH8 and including a scarecrow, a toeside front roll followed by and indy grab. Next up she pulled a KGB wrap, a heel side off axis 360, and closed the run with a bat wing followed by a switch-back-board.

“I feel like I had a great weekend and had a good run today,” Friday said. “Its great to be out competing with all the other athletes, and to be able to be good friends also. (Wakeboarding) is such a great sport and I feel lucky to be able to do what I love, compete and travel around the world.”

Final Results from Long Beach Marine Stadium on August 6, 2005

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MEN

1st Danny Harf Orlando, Fla. 67.90
2nd Phillip Soven Longwood, Fla. 66.55
3rd Josh Sanders Nowra, NSW, Australia 66.50
4th Daniel Watkins Gold Coast, Australia 53.10

WOMEN

1st Dallas Friday Orlando, Fla. 71.05
2nd Emily Copeland Durham Denver, Colo. 55.45
3rd Tara Hamilton Lantana, Fla. 53.30
4th Maeghan Major Springfield, Mo. 45.00

Complete listings of all results and releases, plus photos from X Games 11 are on www.espneventmedia.com.

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