Gateshead BMX star Kieran Reilly lands world’s first triple flair
Watch Jonny Blair's report, featuring Kieran landing the world's first BMX triple flair
BMX star Kieran Reilly, from Gateshead, made history this week landing the world's first triple flair, a trick only previously attempted on computer games.
The 20-year-old told ITV News Tyne Tees: “I hoped for the video to do well but the response that it has gotten has been amazing.
“Every trick I learn, I look forward to the adrenaline rush of finally landing it but I have never ever felt anything like this."
It took Reilly around 13 days of riding and around 20 tries to complete the trick, after first attempting it in May 2021.
He said: “Those 13 days felt like forever. The work that went into it. The crashing and the stress and the challenges and the mental blocks that I had to get past.
“This was the best adrenaline rush and relief I have ever had off a trick. I have never cried happy tears before and you can see on the video, the second I land, it is just like an emotional overload.”
The stunt was filmed at an event sponsored by Red Bull at Asylum Skatepark in Nottinghamshire on a specially constructed roll-in and ramp.
Reilly also took up CrossFit in the gym in order to increase his fitness and lost three kilos in a bid to make his rotations faster.
“I learned the double flair about a year or two ago now. It got to the point where I was getting comfortable and I started losing the fear and adrenaline side of it. I felt like I wanted to push it and no-one had tried the triple flair before.
He added: “I completely changed my lifestyle and regime. I started eating a way better diet, I started going to the gym, and started training a lot more. I just went into it with a completely different outlook.”
Kieran decided to take an eight-month break but said that during that time he was “stressing constantly about someone else doing it”.
He explained: “The eight month break was so hard. It was in my head for the whole eight months. It wasn’t just something I could forget about. I knew, at some point, I had to go back and do it.
“I thought, ‘what if someone else is out there working on it quietly, on this trick.’ I had so much stress and anxiety to get back to it as soon as possible, but I also knew that, as I got back to it, there would be stress and anxiety to do the trick.”
Reilly first came to the attention of global BMX fans aged just 11, when he landed a 720 - two 360 degree spins in one jump - over a spine at the skatepark Unit 23 in Glasgow.
“Once I landed it, in the first ten minutes, I was so ready to just chill, relax and celebrate, but it was not long until I was already speaking to my manager at Red Bull saying that I wanted to do something on par."
He added: “I want to do a crazy project as soon as possible and pretty much already pitched some new ideas so, hopefully, later this year, if not the beginning of next. There are going to be some more big videos coming.”
Video Credit: Red Bull Media House. Watch the full BTS edit at redbull.co.uk/tripleflair