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By JOHN MARSHALL AP Sports Writer
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) -- Tanner Hall had just watched Peter Olenick land the first-ever double flip in a superpipe. He witnessed Simon Dumont's 1260 and knew his friend and chief rival had another crack at it. Hall had already landed his first switch 1080 in competition and was looking to one-up himself and everyone else.
Instead, he came down with a thud. That's right, Hall was too amped at the Winter X Games.
It just wasn't enough to derail a second straight title.
Hall overcame a horrific wipeout and a can-you-top-this duel with friend Simon Dumont to defend his ski superpipe title and earn a record-tying sixth Winter X gold Friday night.
"I just had a little too much excitement," said Hall, who tied snowboarders Shaun White and Shaun Palmer for most Winter X golds. "Too much overexcitement can be bad."
Hall and Dumont have dominated ski superpipe over the past five years and they put on a show this year, trading leads and tricked-out moves.
Hall, who has three golds in slopestyle and another in big air, took the lead with a 90 on the penultimate run on the first of three rounds, only to be topped by Dumont's 1260 -- 3 1/2 rotations -- that gave him the lead with 92 points.
Hall answered with another spectacular run in the second round, starting with a switch (backward) 1080 and ending with another 1080 for 95 points. It seemed like Dumont, a two-time ski superpipe champ, would take the lead back seconds later after he landed a near-flawless 1260 midway through his second run, but he wiped out on his final trick after landing too far down the pipe.
Worried that Dumont would pull off another great run, Hall went for a switch 1080 at the start of his final run, but caught his ski at the bottom of the pipe and lost control as he flew in the air. He landed with a thud at the lip of the pipe and his right leg got caught, splaying his legs in different directions and sending him sprawling to the bottom of the pipe.
Hall lay there for over a minute as medical personnel checked on him, then got to his feet and pumped his poles in the air as he gingerly slid to the bottom of the pipe.
"Dropped in the wall, hit a little something sketchy at the bottom with my ski and it just kind of sent me forward," Hall said. "When you're going switch up a wall, the last place you want to be is on the front of your skis. I kind of fell over the front of it and it kind of didn't work out too well."
Dumont looked nervously as Hall lay on the ice, but regrouped in time to thrown down a spectacular run that included a near-flawless 1260 (3 1/2 revolutions). Dumont slid to a stop, gave Hall a big hug and asked his friend if he was all right, then waited for his score to be posted. It was a 95, leaving Dumont a point behind Hall in one of the best duels -- in any sport -- in the 11 years of Winter X.
"I would have been really bummed if I would have seen a stretcher or anything, but I saw him get up," Dumont said. "After that, I just clicked back into focus mode, jumped into the pipe and did my run."
Olenick, the local favorite, landed the first-ever double flip in a superpipe by a skier or snowboarder during his second run, then hit another on a third-round run that earned him 90 points and a bronze medal.
In women's ski superpipe, Sarah Burke won her first gold, finally ending Grete Eliassen's run as champion with a trick Burke broke her nose attempting in practice.
Eliassen, a Norwegian who lives in Salt Lake City, had won gold in ski superpipe her first two years at Winter X, edging Burke both times. Eliassen was one of the few riders to complete her first run without falling, earning an 83.33 -- 17 points higher than the next closest rider.
The score held up through the second round until Burke put together a run loaded with technical difficulty. The Canadian landed a 540 for her first trick and followed with a 900, the same move that left her with two black eyes and a scrape on her nose after slamming it against the ice during practice earlier this week. Burke followed with a pair of 540s, earning a 90 and the lead.
"It's one (the 900) that I've been working on for a while and I knew that's what I wanted to have in my run," Burke said. "I broke my nose trying it in practice, so I'm glad everything's intact."
Eliassen had the final shot at catching Burke, but knew she had her work to do after Burke landed the 900. Eliassen bobbled on a 540 and dropped her hands to the ice while falling back on a switch-landing 720, earning 86.33 points and a silver.
"It's over, she won," Eliassen said of what went through her mind after Burke landed the 900. "I thought, 'Whoa, I've got to step up.' I guess I was a little too stoked."
Jen Hudak, of Hamden, Conn., took bronze with 66.33, which was good enough for second after the first round.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV-01-26-07 2236MST
