Rome (AFP)
For the last show before their first big Olympic swim, the French skaters got in condition during the 2021 Worlds, narrowly missing from being in the finals, dominated with force by Japan, Sunday in Rome.
In a little over a month, skateboarding will make its debut at the Tokyo Games (July 23-August 8), with two disciplines: park (or bowl) and street.
The latter, the queen event of a world without rules, concluded the Olympic qualification process with high-flying World Championships.
In an ephemeral skatepark, installed on a tennis court at Foro Italico, and without the dreaded rain, the riders, without any protection except a helmet for minors, expressed themselves in the mode of the Olympic format.
Namely a 2/5/4 which means: two runs (passages, 45 seconds each), five tricks (figures) and the four best scores counted (out of a total of seven scores).
The Japanese have sent a clear message: they are all set for the Olympic adventure at home!
They won four of the six medals awarded, two of which were gold.
At 22 years old, Yuto Horigome, world No. 2, won for the first time in the World Championships ahead of the American superstar and world No. 1, Nyjah Huston, thanks to very high-quality tricks on large modules imitating street furniture.
- The dislodged Huston star -
The Nippon, who collected 36.75 points against 35.75 for Huston, pocketed a gold medal, $ 40,000 bonus and a ticket for the Olympics in Tokyo, his city.
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His compatriot Sora Shirai, 19, hung the bronze (34.58).
Huston and Shirai also qualify directly for the Olympics.
Among the girls, the Japanese Aori Nishimura, injured last year, signed a flamboyant return by winning with a total of 14.73 points ahead of her compatriot Momiji Nishiya (silver with 14.17 points) and the young Brazilian aged 13-year-old Rayssa Leal (bronze with 13.47 pts).
The trio are also flying to the Games.
The French did not take part in the Sunday finals.
The best course was that of Vincent Milou, 9th at the end of the semi-finals on Saturday;
only the first eight reached the final.
But the Landais will indeed go to the Olympics, just like his street friends Aurélien Giraud and Charlotte Hym, and with the park specialists, Vincent Matheron and Madeleine Larcheron, who at the top of her 15 years, should be the youngest of the French team, all sports combined.
Best Frenchman with his 6th place in the world ranking, Giraud missed out on the Worlds.
- 'Put the guts' -
"We fall to better get up," he whispered to AFP, aware of what he must correct: "I manage to be mature enough to try to understand why I failed and not reproduce the errors ".
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"I'm not consistent enough and I think that's what I miss a lot, I'm going to try to work more seriously in the long term and not come to the competition with folded arms and just skate and the level that I have. Because today everyone is extremely strong. We all know how to skate but what is important is to know when to put the guts ", continues the Lyonnais, happy to participate at the Olympic games.
In Tokyo, where skateboarding will be an additional sport just like at the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, there will be twenty skaters in male street and twenty in female street, and twenty skaters in male park and twenty in female park.
The Worlds in Rome issued tickets to the medalists, the other places are allocated according to the world ranking, with a maximum of three skaters per nation and per category.
© 2021 AFP