The first post-Paris Olympics WST event was always going to bring changes both in personnel and expectations- and so it proved. The occasionally awful weather abated for finals, but you can be sure it played a role in who made it that far.
The unflappable Japanese groove armada turned up in numbers here in Rome and sailed seven women into their finals out of eight possible competitors. All three of the Paris Olympic medallists from Women’s Street made the finals tonight: only Rayssa Leal stood in the way of an all-Japanese final. Yumeka Oda got absolutely rocked twice on a kickflip frontside boardslide on the same rail in both semis and finals and withdrew injured. We wish her a full and speedy recovery here.
Leading by the end of the Run stage, Rayssa slipped down to sixth position during Best Trick before pulling the best kickflip back smith ever to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Pushed down into second by Rayssa’s heroics was the back-to-her-best Momiji Nishiya who on any other day or against any other opponent would have been outright winner because she was absolutely fantastic. In third with a best-ever WST performance was Miyu Ito who was quietly brilliant herself.
Men’s finals were a more geographically-diverse affair: by semifinals time we were looking at a trio of South Americans, a lone Australian in a very in-form Tommy Fynn, a sole Japanese entrant in Toa Sasaki and three Europeans including highly-promising 14-year old Dutch newcomer Tijmen Overbeeek.
At the end of Run 1, Toa Sasaki was 13 points off the lead and yet somehow came from behind to win by 11, courtesy of a Caballerial fakie nosegrind for the highest Best Trick score of the Men’s contest.
In second came Argentina’s Olympian Matias Dell Olio, while in third with his best WST performance to date came the superb Colombian Juancarlos Gonzalez.
A World Championship full of surprises, new faces and unexpected results kept the crowd enthralled right up until the very end, which is what we all hope for on the WST!
Credit: World Skates Game 2024