Gagnon's vert gold ruins White's return

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LOS ANGELES --- Shaun White 's return to skateboarding wasn't enough to stop the P.L.G. Express.

Shaun White performs during the Skateboard Vert final. Pierre-Luc Gagnon won gold in Friday night's event. White took silver.  Adam Lau/Associated Press
Adam Lau/Associated Press
Shaun White performs during the Skateboard Vert final. Pierre-Luc Gagnon won gold in Friday night's event. White took silver.

Pierre-Luc Gagnon , a 30-year-old star from Quebec, won his third consecutive X Games gold Friday night at the Nokia Theatre, becoming the first to win the Skateboard Vert three times.

Gagnon -- known around the games as P.L.G. -- used a remarkable kickflip varial 540 to score 93 in the final jam session and win his fifth vert gold overall.

"I'm super psyched I pulled it off," Gagnon said. "I can't believe I did it."

Later in the evening, P.L.G. added another gold in Skateboard Best Trick.

White, who just returned to skateboarding earlier this month after more than a year lost to injuries and his Olympic snowboarding career, had a brief lead during the final session but the 85 he posted was good enough only for a silver. Andy MacDonald won bronze with a 79.

POIGNANT DOUBLE: Last year Cam Sinclair spent seven days in a coma after failing to land a double backflip.

He used the same trick to win X Games gold.

Sinclair crashed while attempting the double back in Spain, and had to learn again how to walk and talk before he got back on a motorcycle six months ago.

The X Games rookie Sinclair nailed the double to beat out Robbie Maddison and win Moto X Best trick.

In a similar scary moment, Paris Rosen attempted a rare forward flip Friday but didn't come close to rotating enough and fell to the Staples Center floor on his back with his bike on top of him.

Rosen lay limp for several minutes after the crash.

His exact injuries were not clear, but X Games officials said he was awake and alert and moving all four limbs before he was taken to a hospital.

BESTWICK BEST YET AGAIN: Jamie Bestwick refuses to share the X Games vert ramp -- or the gold medal platform -- with anyone else.

Bestwick, a 39-year-old Englishman who is widely considered the best BMX vert rider ever, won an unprecedented fourth consecutive gold and seventh overall in BMX Freestyle Vert.

He was good enough for the gold and silver if medals were handed out that way -- he had the two best runs in the competition.

His complex trip combos included a double downside tailwhip and an opposite flare to opposite-fastplant flare.

Steve McCann won silver, beating out bronze-winner Simon Tabron in a tiebreaker.

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