Red Bull X-Fighters 2017
£ Maikel
Melero’s Front
Flip off the
controversial
mechanical
ramp.
£ Adam Jones
69
The semi-finals were seeded based on the
riders’ scores from the previous rounds,
which left us with Sherwood vs. Torres,
Sheehan vs. Ackermann and Higashino vs.
Jones.
Local hero, Dany Torres, put on a great show
after edging his way into the semis, but
ultimately had no answer for Sherwood’s
huge tricks. Levi took a clean-sweep of
all five categories from the judges. Josh
Sheehan’s variety was enough to see off Luc
Ackermann, although the young German
nailed his run and was far from deflated by
the result.
The closest fight of the round saw Taka edge
out Adam Jones by three helmets to two.
While he may not have a Double Backflip
in his toolbox just yet, Taka’s execution of
extremely technical tricks meant he was by
no means an outside bet for the last three.
And so, the final. Up until a couple of years
ago, Josh Sheehan was the only rider
consistently throwing Double Backflips. But
in the face of an opponent with more than
one available, Josh knew all he could do is
put down a perfect run and then hope Levi
had a slip up.
Things went well for Sheehan – he pulled off
his flips, an Indy Flair and his own Double
Backflip in what would have been a podium-
topping run in many other years. But Levi had
hit his stride and after opening with a steezy
360 Nac Nac, the crowd were treated to two
Double Backflips in a flawless run.
Madrid proved to be the second stop on
Levi’s “Summer of Sherwood” that’s seen
him top podiums at Nitro World Games,
X-Fighters and X Games. We’re looking
forward to seeing him return to Las Ventas
next year, and the rest of the pack have 12
months to come up with something to top the
double-double. t
q Check out the following pages for
Martin Zöllner's interviews from qualifying.
Novilleros?
Part of Red Bull’s effort
to allow fresh blood
into their premier
FMX competition
is their “Novillero”
programme. It offers
two places in the finals
to riders chosen from
a pool of 29 up-and-
coming FMXers. One
of the places is chosen
by a panel of judges,
with the other going
down to a popular
vote via Red Bull’s
X-Fighters website.