2 years after brutal fall, Brown gets X Games gold

Jake Brown finally has something else to talk about.

The skateboarder whose grisly, 40-foot fall to the floor of the X Games mega ramp two years ago drew gasps and became a viral video sensation, won gold Friday night in the same Skateboard Big Air competition at Staples Center.

The 34-year-old Australian earned a 94 on the third of his five runs with a backside 360 over the mega ramp's gap into a 20-foot-high McTwist over the half-pipe for his first X Games gold.

Brown's 2007 spill knocked him unconscious and left him with a broken wrist, a cracked vertebra and a bruised lung.

Despite the near-death experience, he was the first to roll down the ramp last year.

Two-time defending champion Bob Burnquist of Rio de Janeiro, who made his winning run in 2007 just after watching Brown's slam, managed to tie Brown's winning score on Friday, but Brown had a better second run.

Rob Lorifice of Encinitas, Calif., won bronze.

The competition had its usual spills but nothing close to Brown's fall or last year's pair of crashes from mega ramp creator Danny Way that sent him to the hospital for several days.

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HAWKINS HITS WITH MISSES: Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins won gold in the X Games Skateboard Women's vert competition Thursday despite a routine full of blown tricks.

The judges looked kindly on Hawkins' repeated attempts to land the first McTwist, or mid-air 540 spin, in women's competition.

Hawkins, 19, from Cardiff by the Sea, Calif., had been working with McTwist master Tony Hawk on the maneuver and had several near misses Thursday.

"We're all really pushing each other right now," Hawkins said. "I'm not even going to be able to snowboard this winter, because I'm going to have to skateboard all year round so I can practice and stick even more tricks next year."

She did manage to successfully land several kickflip indies, a trick that just a few years ago was considered untouchable in women's competition.

Karen Jonz of Brazil, who trumped Hawkins to take last year's gold, won silver and Gaby Ponce of Tenafly, N.J., took the bronze.