Sheckler Wuz Robbed

San Clemente's Ryan Sheckler finished fourth in the men's skateboard street final, .25 points out of third place. Sheckler was in second after the first session, third after the second one and then was not even on the medal stand when it was all said and done.

Chris Cole repeated as champion with a consistent array of kick flips and backside turns. He was followed by Huntington Beach's Greg Lutzka and Jereme Rogers on the podium. Sheckler, Tommy Sandoval and Paul "P-Rod" Rodriguez rounded out to top six.

1- Chris Cole - 94.33

2- Greg Lutza - 93.41

3- Jereme Rogers - 87.41

4- Ryan Sheckler -87.16

5- Tommy Sandoval - 86.25

6- Paul Rodriguez - 86.00

7- Mark Appleyard - 84.91

8- Eric Koston - 82.75

9- Andrew Reynolds - 80.50

10- Nick Dompierre - 78.41

When the standings were announced you could tell Sheckler and the people in his camp were not happy. They were as surprised as I was that he didn't even medal. But he was gracious in defeat.

Sheckler, only 18, told members of the media that "maybe it wasn't my day" and that even though he was disappointed with the results "he still had fun."

It was a class-act reaction from a guy that could have just as easily called into question the credibility of the judges.

Sheckler might not have been as consistent as Cole, but he was more of a risk-taker than the winner, that's for sure. In the first session he was the first to try to jump the entire ramp and got it on the first try. After a couple more skaters did the trick, he did a reverse backside turn that cleared the ramp as well.

He probably ran out of gas in that first session. During the break between the first and second sessions, Sheckler took off his shirt, ate a banana and drank something from his Red Bull athletic-bottle (I don't think it was Red Bull, which dehydrates you).

When he took off his shirt he showed off a new tattoo. Across his back he had "Sheckler" written from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, like a football jersey, in big bold letters.

It made one media member say, "I want one of those ... but I'll get a number as well." I'm not much into ink, but Sheckler's tat did look cool.

He'll get another shot at a gold medal in the skateboard street men's best tick competition at 10 o'clock tonight.

-- Jaime Cardenas

Comments

[Eric Klutts]

does anyone know where to get that red bull athletic bottle from??