Daredevil acts win silver for Sherwood

Palmerston North’s Levi Sherwood returned to the X games in style by winning a silver medal in the Moto X Freestyle event in Los Angeles on Friday.

After missing last year’s X Games through injury, Sherwood picked up his second silver medal in his second time at the games with a top score of 91.66 behind Japan’s Taka Higashino. Sherwood’s silver-medal score came in his second run which featured a kiss of death backflip, a can can backflip and an extended kiss of death backflip.

The ESPN commentators were loving the Kiwi lad during his runs, as the Rubber Kid’s huge hang time saw him leaving it late to get back on the bike before it landed during his tricks.

Sherwood missed the event last year after he crashed while practising for the Nitro Circus Live Show, breaking his wrist, fracturing two vertebrae and injuring his lung, liver and kidney.

The 20-year-old had a lot to do in his second run to beat Higashino’s score and while his death-defying acts and big extensions on the bike were enough to worry the top competitor, he couldn’t top the score.

Higashino posted a score of 93.33 in his first run and his tricks included a never-before-seen backflip rock solid double grab, a kiss of death flip, a heel-clicker flip, and a massive no-handed superman air to holy grab.

Higashino, Sherwood and the third-placed Chilean Javier Villegas made it an all international podium at the event that was expected to be dominated by Americans, including last year’s winner Nate Adams, who finished in fourth place.

Sherwood goes back to competing in the Red Bull X-Fighters competition now where he is in second place after winning the series opener in Dubai in April.

The next round of the world tour event will take place in Madrid, Spain on July 20.