SAN FRANCISCO -- Actions spoke louder than words Thursday night inside the halfpipe during the men's in-line vert final. Which was a good thing, because the winner was speaking Japanese and nobody except his family and one camera crew understood what he was saying.

But it was pretty obvious to everyone that Eito Yasutoko was feeling the same emotions of any gold medalist -- even if he couldn't express himself in English.

Yasutoko won his first X Games gold medal with two runs nobody in the field of 10 could match. His first was filled with variations of the 720 flat spin, while his second was just as solid and that much bigger to give him a winning score of 81.00.

	It was a busy day for Salerno, who finished fourth in the in-line street competition and then took bronze a few hours later in vert.

Defending gold medalist Cesar Mora pulled out the only 1080 flat spin of the night to conclude his second run. But even it wasn't enough to deny Yasutoko -- or the "Man from Japan" as Chris Edwards called him Thursday night.

"Five years ago at Venice Beach, Eito met Cesar," said Yasutoko's father in an attempt to translate Yasutoko's words. "He and Cesar are good friends. He (is) very surprised (to beat him)."

Yasutoko, 15, finished fourth in his and younger brother Takeshi's X Games vert debut a year ago in San Diego. Takeshi, 13, was also in the vert final this year and finished eighth. When Yasutoko finished his second run, the Yasutoko family and their friends from Osaka, Japan tackled Yasutoko in the middle of the halfpipe.

A year ago, the Yasutoko family arrived at the X Games and quickly became a novelty due to their father owning a skate park back in Japan, Takeshi's high-flying tricks at such a young age and Yasutoko's challenge to the Australian duo of Mora and Matt Salerno. This year, Eito made the Yasutoko name golden.

"(Eito) gets a bit of a raw deal sometimes. But he deserved it on the day. I am really happy for him." -- Cesar Mora In-line vert silver medalist

It was his second major vert title on U.S. soil. He won the B3 Vert title in Seal Beach, Calif., two years ago. He has also won vert titles in Brazil, Australia and Thailand in the '98 Asian X Games.

Mora said Yasutoko's breakthrough performance at the X Games was a long-time coming.

"He skates like this on a regular basis," said Mora, who also won silver in 1995 before winning the vert gold last year. "(Eito) gets a bit of a raw deal sometimes. Sometimes he doesn't land all his tricks as well. It was a bit windy. I guess that suited him a little more than me. If there wasn't any wind, I would have gone a lot higher. But he deserved it on the day. I am really happy for him."

Yasutoko's ability to spin back-to-back 720s in both directions, and grind from the higher to lower coping proved to be the difference. There was still a chance, however, for Mora to catch him if he could put together one of his high-flying acts.

Mora, who was third after the first run with a 74.75, saw his good friend Salerno move into a tie for second with Matt Lindemuth with a 75.00 on his second run. That pushed Mora to fourth and gave him nothing to lose going into the final run of the night.

"I was fourth, I didn't want to get fourth. I wanted to get a medal, so I went all out," Mora said. "I wasn't going to go down, so I went up.

"I did a couple of tricks I normally wouldn't do. (But) I stuffed-up the 540 (early), which is one of my easiest tricks, which killed my whole run. I was going really smooth until then. I was pretty tired but I threw (the 1080) anyway. It was blind. I landed it, so I was happy.

"But I feel really lucky to get second place. I'm really happy with second place."

Salerno was awarded third place on the strength of his first-run score of 62.75 being higher than Lindenmuth's second run (59.25). Last year's silver medalist also competed in the street competition, where he finished fourth, and it may have worn him down just a bit.

Edwards, competing in the X Games after missing last year's event with two broken arms, once again had a good time in finishing 10th.