Usual Suspects Win Skateboard Vert Doubles

Bob Burnquist and Bucky Lasek dominated the Skateboard Vert Doubles competition and won the X Games gold medal Saturday at Staples Center.

Burnquist and Lasek scored 96.67 points, 7.34 ahead of Mike Crum and Rune Glifberg. Neal Hendrix and Buster Halterman were third with 86 points in an event that features teammates simultaneously skateboarding a choreographed routine in the half pipe.

The signature move for the winning team was a mid-air skateboard exchange.

It was the second gold medal for Lasek, who won the individual Skateboard Vert Friday night. Lasek and Burnquist, who won silver in this event last year, have won a combined 17 X Games medals, six of them gold.

Tony Hawk and Andy Macdonald, defending champions in the event, did not participate. Hawk is competing today in his only event: the Skateboard Vert Best Trick. It is the same event that brought Hawk into the limelight in 1999 for landing the first 900-degree turn in skateboarding history.

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Eito and Takeshi Yasutoko, high-flying brothers from Japan, led the qualifying for the Aggressive In-Line Vert competition.

Eito, 20, scored 91.38 points and will be top-seeded in the finals today. Takeshi, 17, scored 88.38. Takeshi won the event last year and Eito was second.

Taig Khris of Redondo Beach was third in qualifying with 86.13 points and Cesar Mora of Australia was fourth with 79.75. The top 10 qualifiers advance to the final at 1:30 today at Staples Center.

-- Peter Yoon