July 30, 1999

ESPN's B3: Bikes, Boards and Blades, returned to Oceanside, Calif. this weekend as more than 6,500 spectators gathered for the first day of professional competition on Friday. After more than 3,000 people attended opening day events on Thursday, sunny skies and warm weather brought the city of Oceanside down to the beach Friday. A strong international field stepped up to the awards stand in aggressive in-line skating while preliminaries in both skateboarding and bicycle stunt competition qualified athletes for Sunday's finals.

Women's in-line skating

	Sayaka Yabe.

The in-line skating final slotted nine women against each other. Fabiola da Silva of Sao Paulo, Brazil, skated to gold in an impressive manner, while Sayaka Yabe of Saitama, Japan stole the bronze. Second place honors went to Katie Brown of Jacksonville, FL, who put on a solid performance in which she landed a multitude of difficult tricks. Women's in-line vert competition continues Saturday.

Men's in-line skating
In an exciting vert final, Cesar Mora of Sydney, Australia dazzled the judges while sailing past the competition. With the win, Mora, who won the silver medal at the 1999 X Games, reinforced the claim that he is the leader of the in-line skating movement. Second and third place honors went to Matt Lindenmuth of Kutztown, PA and Marc Englehart of Lansdale, PA, respectively.

Bicycle stunt

	Dave Mirra.

In the vert preliminaries, Dave Mirra of Greenville, NC cruised into first as the top qualifier, again proving his prowess on the vert ramp. He claimed the gold in both the street and vert disciplines at the 1999 X Games in San Francisco. Mirra was followed by Jamie Bestwick of Heanor Derbyshire, UK and Simon Tabron of Liverpool, UK. The vert finals are scheduled for Saturday.

Skateboarding
In the street preliminaries, a number of professional skaters stepped up to qualify for the finals. An on-fire Mike Santarossa of Santa Barbara, CA led the pack through the afternoon followed by Dan Pageau of Montreal, Canada and Jaya Bonderov of San Francisco, CA . The street finals continue Saturday.

This weekend, all of the competitions will be held at the Oceanside Pier in Oceanside, CA. Involved are three sports categories with a total of nine disciplines, including bicycle stunt street, halfpipe and flatland; men's and women's in-line skating, street and halfpipe; and skateboarding street and halfpipe. Competition continues through Sunday.

For B3, ESPN and espn2 will combine to televise approximately 29.5 hours of programming, including re-airs, encore presentations and 14 hours of original programming. Athletes at this year's B3 will be aiming to qualify for the 2000 X Games, which will be held in San Francisco, CA during the summer of 2000.