NEWS: BX: Palm Takes Boarder X Again by Shanti Sosienski There were no big surprises in today's X Games boardercross when snowboard legend Shaun Palmer once again proved to the world that age over beauty always wins, especially when the Palm is involved. In true showmanship style, he finished the course with enough time to throw in some slopestyle into the end of his run, sliding into the home plate to take home his second X Games gold. Boardercross ruler Andy Hetzel (middle) fought hard to stay in the lead, but was bumped out in the final round. "It was out of control, totally extreme" sneered Palmer in perfect X Games television style at the Adidas/Red Bull rave party Friday night. While the event was categorized as "extreme" for the purpose of the event, today's boardercross was one of the more tame, and at times lame events spectators have seen here at the Games. Multiple delays in the course due to television cameras and who-knows-what-else, caused many to lose interest in the event. The competition began sometime around one o'clock, and took over four hours for preliminaries and finals. Then because the men's boardercross didn't end until it was almost dark, the women's were delayed until Saturday morning. The boarder cross course was a lot shorter than most courses and had an unusual beginning-a mogul field. Fortunately the mogul field stayed fairly soft for the entire competition, but by late afternoon the moguls appeared to be steadily growing with every heat. Andy Hetzel and Shaun Palmer are the best of friends and the best of competitors. "Overall the course seemed to have good rhythm to it," said sixth place, Chris Engelsman. "The snow was pretty grippy and the K2 guys hooked me up with good wax, so it was okay. The boardercross wasn't the only event today though. Also taking place in the morning was the halfpipe prelims. Jamil Kahn with a total of 84.00 and Michele Taggart with 88.00 placed first for the men and women's divisions with the combined three scores in the pipe. Coming in at a close second in the men's division was Todd Richards and then in the women's Aurelie Sayres. While all of the competitors seemed to have a lot of difficulty getting much height in the halfpipe, no one seemed to concerned that it wouldn't be fixed before Sunday's finals. "We have practice tomorrow, so afterward we'll get in there and straighten it all out," said Frank Wells who was sitting in sixth place. Wells is known throughout the snowboard world for his ability to fix even the most spoiled pipes. Can Frank save yet another snowboard contest from looking totally lame because the competitors couldn't get over the lip? Stay tuned to more live coverage from the X Games to find out. OTHER NEWS THE X FILES--Special ESPN Edition of the Snowblower. Fri. (Jan. 16 @ 5:15:PM est) SLOPESTYLE: Powers And Waara Mine Gold Fri. (Jan. 16 @ 5:13:PM est) What's Happening? Thu. (Jan. 15 @ 10:24:AM est) What's Extreme Anyway? Thu. (Jan. 15 @ 10:22:AM est) WINTER X MESSAGE BOARDS: Your area to say anything you want about the Winter X Games. '97 WINTER X GAMES: Remember the '97 Winter X Games? Here's last year's coverage in case you don't. SOL NAVIGATION: SOL | Scoop | Hardware | Industry | Circleplus | Push | Travel | Interact | School | Weather | Terrain | Compete | Mediator © 1997, InterZine Productions. All rights reserved.