Paris (AFP)

A week after the bowl (or park) specialists, it is the turn of the 'streeters' to get back into competition mode with the French Championships, Sunday in Biarritz, which enter the qualification process for the Tokyo Olympics this summer.

Bowl - or park at the Olympics (aerial figures in a deep bowl) - and street (very technical figures on modules in a park reproducing street furniture) are the two skateboarding disciplines included for the first time in the Olympic program.

And three months before this new meeting in their life, the skaters have not yet been selected. The qualification system resumes after a year and a half without competition due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The sesames will be awarded according to the world ranking which will be closed after two big deadlines: the Dew Tour in street and park in Des Moines in Iowa (USA / May 20-23) and the Street World Championships in Rome (30 May-June 6).

Until then, the French can warm up seriously with the national championships, which grant points integrated into the world rankings.

After the bowl on May 2 in Chelles (Seine-et-Marne), the street made its show in Biarritz, with Landais Vincent Milou as headliner, who already has almost his ticket in his pocket for Japan (he is 12th in the world ranking; the first 20 are qualified at a rate of 3 riders per nation maximum).

- 'In legs' -

"It allows you to get back on your feet a little. And there is a small stake, on the previous edition I was second, if I win this year, I will take a few more points for the general classification for the Olympics ", explains to AFP Vincent Milou, returned a month ago from Long Beach (California / USA), where he lives almost half of the year.

"But for example if you win the world championships you have 100,000 points and the 'France' is 3000 points but it's always that taken. And it's an opportunity to try new things to put myself in confidence for future competitions, "he continues.

The defending champion, Aurélien Giraud, has stayed in San Diego (California / USA), where he has decided to settle.

Alongside Snowy, Le Havre Joseph Garbaccio will try to score as many points as possible to hope to enter the race for Olympic tickets.

Just like the 2019 French champion, Charlotte Hym, the only Blue to be able to claim the Olympics in street.

© 2021 AFP