Was that the best women’s street skateboarding contest of all time? It had everything, leaving aside the highest standard of female street skateboarding seen to date at a World Skate event (in my opinion, in any case).It had heroism. Genuine heroism. Not just from Aoi Uemura, who came into the finals brimming with confidence only to get rocked on a practice trick for the second day in a row, but from Rayssa Leal who skipped one of her best trick attempts out of necessity having bodied herself on an attempted flip to backside tailslide on the hubba(!) She, too, can be proud of her courage here today.
Ph: Jake Darwen
We saw the emergence of 13-year-old Chloe Covell as a future star having gone from seventh here a year ago to being almost nailed-on to win with 2 rounds of best tricks still to go, so dominant was she.It had a last gasp, at-the-death, come-from-behind victor in Liz Akama, who had qualified in first and saw her position slip away only to come through on the very last trick of the day.It saw Momiji Nishiya, who seemed guaranteed of a top 3 spot because she is so good in so many ways, slip down the leaderboard late.
Ph: Davide Biondani
For all these reasons and more, this was clear evidence of what makes skateboarding contests so seductive: nothing is written; anything can happen. Most of it did, here in Rome tonight. From a neutral’s perspective, it was as exciting an event as you could hope to witness. You can keep your organised sports with teams and tactics. This was wild and raw and exciting and heartbreaking all in the space of an hour. A wonderful, wonderful thing. Grazia, Roma.
Ph: Jake Darwen
World Street Skateboarding Rome 2023 Results:
- Liz Akama
- Chloe Covell
- Yumeka Oda
- Rayssa Leal
- Miyu Ito
- Aoi Uemura
- Gabi Mazetto
- Momiji Nishiya
Watch the entire sensational showdown in full here- we hope to see you all in Lausanne this September, as the World Skateboarding Tour continues!