It’s nice to see him back — even for one contest.

All that said, be sure to check out the video below — it has highlights of all the top riders from the contest including Austin Coleman, Dhers and Nyquist.  Plus you gotta love the screenshot — see Zack Warden in the background.

Coleman, Canina, Ellis | cr. Jared Souney

Brazilian Diogo Canina took home the top spot Thursday night as the Big-Air BMX Triples contest came to a close at the Orace County Fairground.  Canina defeated Austin Coleman and TJ Ellis in the three-man final after besting Josh Stead and Koji Kraft in earlier matches.

Check out the full release below to find out how the action went down.

Brazil’s Diogo Canina wins the Big-Air BMX Triples Event!
California’s own Austin Coleman and T.J. Ellis Capture Second and Third Place

LOS ANGELES (July 31, 2008) – The highest-flying action in Orange County this week concluded tonight when ASA Entertainment presented the finals of the Big-Air BMX Triples from the Orange County Fair’s Action Sports Arena.  Before an audience that overflowedthe grandstand onto the infield and bleachers, Brazil’s Diogo Canina performed a virtually flawless run of backflip tailwhips, tailwhips, and a 720 to win the event championship and qualify for the LG Action Sports World Championships.  Just two nights ago, Canina stood in the same podium position after winning round one and said he wouldhave to ride even harder in the finals because he would be facing some of the best BMX riders in the business.  The battle fought tonight involved some of the toughest skirmishes the sport has to offer.

The head-to-head format for the Big Air BMX Triples saw every man performing tricks from an expansive repertoire in order to prevail and advance to the next round.  For some, even injury didn’t stop them from throwing their toughest stunts.  With a dislocated finger, ligament damage in his wrist, and a sprained ankle, Koji Kraft (Addison, Ill.) fought through the pain in the quarterfinals and defeated Ricky Moseley, round one’s third place winner, to advance to the semi-finals where he met the eventual event winner, Canina; an injured Kraft was no match for the consistent Brazilian.

In other quarterfinal action, T.J. Ellis (Moreno Valley, CA) and Pat Casey, the 14 year-old phenom from Placentia, Calif., provided the judges with one of the toughest decisions of the evening.  Casey electrified the crowd with a triple tailwhip during his first run, but was quickly challenged by Ellis with his front-flip, 360 double tailwhip combination.  The eventual decision was unanimous, and Ellis advanced to the semi-finals to face Rob Darden (Greenville, NC), Wednesday night’s preliminary round two winner. Round two’s results, which saw Ellis accept third place to Darden’s win, were long forgotten as Ellis successfully connected with his stunts tonight to earn a spot in the final heat.

For Austin Coleman (Los Angeles, Calif.) tonight progressed the same as it did last night; Coleman faced impressive talent that required him to push hard all the way to the end.  He pumped up the crowd before each run and fed off their energy to perform no-handed front flips and no-handed flairs to the fans’ delight.  He entered the final round confident and ready to take on the best men the event had to offer, and Canina and Ellis stepped up to answer his challenge.

The final heat ended with each man standing on the podium in the same positions in which they stood after their preliminary rounds; Diogo Canina in first place, Austin Coleman in second place and T.J. Ellis in third place.  The Big Air BMX Triples compared each man’s best of two runs and rewarded technical consistency and flawless execution over flash and flair.

The Big Air BMX Triples is an ASA Entertainment production whose excitement will be brought to fans via CBS Sports later this year.  Please stay tuned to your local listings and www.bmxtriples.com for more information.

Final Results

Final Podium:
Winner: Diogo Canina
Second: Austin Coleman
Third: TJ Ellis

Below are the full results from the Final Round of competition at the BMX Big Air Triples event in Costa Mesa, CA.

Quarter-Final:
Chris Hughes vs. Sean Logan
Winner: Sean Logan

Tony Campos vs. Austin Coleman
Winner: Austin Coleman

Pat Casey vs. TJ Ellis
Winner: TJ Ellis

Michael Clark vs. Rob Darden
Winner: Rob Darden

Koji Kraft vs. Ricky Moseley
Winner: Koji Kraft

Josh Stead vs. Diogo Canina
Winner: Diogo Canina

Semi-Final:
Sean Logan vs. Austin Coleman
Winner: Austin Coleman

TJ Ellis vs. Rob Darden
Winner: TJ Ellis

Koji Kraft vs. Diogo Canina
Winner: Diogo Canina

Final:
Austin Coleman vs. TJ Ellis vs. Diogo Canina
Winner: Diogo Canina, Second: Austin Coleman, Third: TJ Ellis

Rob Darden, Austin Coleman and TJ Ellis led the field for the second round of qualifying for the Big-Air BMX Triples in Orange County Wednesday night.  The field of 12 is set for tonight’s final, including Ricardo Laguna, Koji Kraft and Josh Stead, in addition to those who qualified Tuesday night.

Read on for the official press release from the night’s action and stay tuned for the results from the final.

Big Air BMX Triples Thrills Southern California Fans with Gravity-Defying Round Two Action
Rob Darden Wins Preliminary Round Two

LOS ANGELES (July 30, 2008) – Tonight’s second round of ASA Entertainment’s Big-Air BMX Triples included a “double back flip”, a few “front flips”, a “360° double tail whip”, and several “720°s” on the way to Rob Darden (Greenville, NC), winning preliminary round two and collecting $1000.  The night’s top three riders, Darden, Austin Coleman (Los Angeles, Calif.), T.J. Ellis (Moreno Valley, Calif.), performed a variety of tricks that displayed the progression in BMX jumping and shocked the crowd into amazed silence.  At evening’s end, it was Darden’s clean, confident, consistent execution of big-air stunts that surpassed even the wildest combination of aerobatics attempted by Coleman and Ellis and left everyone eagerly awaiting Sunday’s finals.

Before Darden, Coleman and Ellis battled for the night’s top performance, three other men qualified earlier in the evening to join them in Thursday’s event finals. Mexico’s Ricardo Laguna, Illinois’ Koji Kraft, and Australia’s Josh Stead bested their head-to-head opponent to receive a spot in the final round of the Big-Air BMX Triples.

On Thursday evening, Darden, Coleman, Ellis, Laguna, Kraft and Stead will be joined by round one qualifiers Sean Logan (San Clemente, Calif.), Alistair Whitton (Chester, England), Ricky Moseley (Mason, Tenn.), Pat Casey (Placentia, Calif.), Tony Campos (San Francisco, Calif.), and Diogo Canina (Sao Paulo, Brazil), to compete for the $5,000 first place purse and two spots in the LG Action Sports World Championships.

The battle begins at 8:15 p.m. at the Orange County Fair’s Action Sports Arena.  Reserved seats can be purchased via Ticketmaster.com for as little at $12.50, while limited General Admission seats are free, offered on a first come first served basis.

CBS Sports will feature highlights of the Big Air BMX Triples event later this year during ASA Entertainment’s Action Sports World Tour programming.  Please check your local listings and stay tuned to www.bmxtriples.com for more details.

Full Results From Tuesday and Wednesday

The following are the results from Round Two (Wednesday Night). Top Six from head to head competition advance to Thursday’s final, along with the top six from Round One on Tuesday.
Quarter-Final:

Loren LaVerne vs. Ricardo Laguna
Winner: Ricardo Laguna

Mike Moura vs. Rob Darden
Winner: Rob Darden

Chris Hughes vs. TJ Ellis
Winner: TJ Ellis

Thomas Hancock vs. Koji Kraft
Winner: Koji Kraft

Josh Stead vs. Ben Snowden
Winner: Josh Stead

Dillon Stark vs. Austin Coleman
Winner: Austin Coleman

Semi-Final:

Ricardo Laguna vs. Rob Darden
Winner: Rob Darden

TJ Ellis vs. Koji Kraft
Winner: TJ Ellis

Josh Stead vs. Austin Coleman
Winner: Austin Coleman

Final:
Rob Darden vs. TJ Ellis vs. Austin Coleman
Winner: Rob Darden, Second: Austin Coleman, Third: TJ Ellis

Ricardo Laguna, Rob Darden, TJ Ellis, Koji Kraft, Josh Stead, and Austin Coleman move on to the final event on Thursday, joined by the top six from Tuesday nights Preliminary Round: Diogo Canina, Sean Logan, Rick Mosely, Tony Campos, Pat Casey, and Alistair Whitton.

The following are the results from Round One (Tuesday Night). Top Six from head to head competition advance to Thursday’s final, along with the top six from Round Two on Wednesday.

Quarter-Final:

Erik Soto vs. Sean Logan
Winner: Sean Logan

Dan Norvell vs. Alistair Whitton
Winner: Alistair Whitton

Ricky Moseley vs. Alfredo Mancuso
Winner: Ricky Moseley

Pat Casey vs. Michael Clark
Winner: Pat Casey

Tony Campos vs. Cory Walters
Winner: Tony Campos

Lance Harness vs. Diogo Canina
Winner: Diogo Canina

Semi-Final:
Alistair Whitton vs. Sean Logan
Winner: Sean Logan

Rick Mosely vs. Pat Casey
Winner: Rick Mosely

Tony Campos vs. Diogo Canina
Winner: Diogo Canina

Final:
Rick Mosely vs. Sean Logan vs. Diogo Canina
Winner: Diogo Canina, Second: Sean Logan, Third: Rick Mosely

Diogo Canina, Sean Logan, Rick Mosely, Tony Campos, Pat Casey, and Alistair Whitton move on to the final event on Thursday, joined by the top six from Wednesday nights Preliminary Round.

Chad Kagy cr. AST

Chad Kagy returned to the form that made him one of the athletes to beat in BMX Vert last season — at least until a broken collarbone knocked him out of one AST event last season plus the X Games.  Recovering from the injury held him back in Salt Lake City but by the season’s final event he was back on top, edging Jamie Bestwick in a tie-breaker.

Based on the new rule this season 2007′s final top three BMX Vert athletes automatically move to the finals (in future events it will be based on the current season’s rankings) so Bestwick, Simon Tabron and Steve McCann got a bye.  However, that left only seven spots open in the qualifiers and who missed the cut was actually more surprising than who made it.

First off, Zack Warden finished ninth overall in the prelims.  Warden had been touted by many, including Bestwick, as a rider to watch this season after his breakout year in ’07.  However, Warden’s habit of going all out sometimes means he can’t finish runs cleanly and that happened again Thursday.  Similarly Francisco “Coco” Zurita, who pulled some amazing tricks last year, missed the cut by one spot.

It just shows how strong the competition was as new world-record holder Kevin Robinson and veteran Dennis McCoy (at 41, the tour’s oldest competitor) made the finals yet again.  One younger face did have a huge day — Austin Coleman threw out some terrific tailwhips to lock-up second in the prelims thanks to a tie-breaker with John Parker, who took third.

The BMX Vert finals will take place on Friday from 4:30-6 p.m. ET and highlights will air on NBC on Sunday, June 22, from 1-3 p.m. (ET).

Here’s the lineup for Friday’s final (in order)

10. Jimmy Walker
9. Dennis McCoy
8. Kevin Robinson
7. Jay Eggleston
6. John Parker
5. Austin Coleman
4. Chad Kagy
3. Steve McCann
2. Simon Tabron
1. Jamie Bestwick

BMX Vert Prelim Results
June 19, 2008 – Top Seven Advance

1st — Kagy, Chad — 90.17
2nd — Coleman, Austin — 88.67
3rd — Parker, John — 88.67
4th — Eggleston, Jay — 87.67
5th — Robinson, Kevin — 87.67
6th — McCoy, Dennis — 86.83
7th — Walker, Jimmy — 86.50
——————————————-
8th — Zurita, Francisco — 86.17
9th — Warden, Zack — 85.50
10th — Stober, Tom — 85.33
12th — Kraft, Koji — 84.50
13th — Jovel, Jorge — 84.33
14th — Snowden, Ben — 83.50
15th — Williams, Danny — 82.67
16th — Mancuso, Mike — 78
17th — McElhinney, Keith — 74.33