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In-liners invade San Francisco
By Daniel Dodd, ESPN.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- True spin to alley oop makio? A launch box top-side pornstar? This can only mean one thing. The in-liners have landed.

Forty-eight athletes, men and women, representing 12 different countries, have converged on Pier 30 in San Francisco for the aggressive in-line competition at X Games V.

 Jenny Logue
Logue hopes to finally turn her X Trials success into X Games gold.

Aggressive in-line is the second most represented sport next to sport climbing which boasts athletes from fifteen countries around the world.

The group began practicing Tuesday morning in preparation for Wednesday's preliminaries. Among those showing up early for practice was Jenny Logue, a three-time X Trials champion in street and a native of Great Britain. Logue is still searching for her first medal in X Games competition.

"I've been kind of lucky at the Trials the last two years running," said Logue. "But I haven't done so well at the X Games themselves."

Logue, 17, edged out crowd favorite Fabiola da Silva this year at the X Trials in Louisville, Ky. She hopes to continue that trend at X Games V.

"I mostly skate good if I'm having a good time," said Logue. "I just have to see how it goes."

Logue states that skating in the states is far more commonplace than in her home of Surrey, Great Britain where in-line skating is still catching on.

"It's just bigger here," said Logue. "It seems to be more accepted over here as a sort of lifestyle."

While she's here, Logue is working on some new tricks to add to her arsenal.

"I've been doing 540's recently," she said. "I just love them, so hopefully I will be able to put several of them in my run."

As for this year's street course, Logue echoes what the skateboarders and bicycle stunt riders have been saying all week.

"It's real big," she said with an overwhelmed look. "It's got a lot of square edge stuff and less coping. It just takes a little to get used to it. It's quite hard."

Logue, and the rest of the street competitors, will continue preparing for Wednesday's preliminaries in hopes of advancing to Thursday afternoon's final.

Women's vert preliminaries will take place on Wednesday evening with the finals on Friday afternoon.

 
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