What a place for such a thing to unfold: beauty and tragedy, dashed dreams and moonshots, the return of the king: much to unpack, is the least we can say. How very Roman. As with the women who skated an hour previously, the bookmakers of Las Vegas will have been jumping out of windows at what materialised at dusk in Rome tonight. On paper- meaning, against the prevailing winds of what brought us here through the qualifiers, semi-finals and quarter-finals- the trajectory of this event ended up on the floor come finals time.
Ph: Jake Darwen
This wasn’t supposed to happen: Nyjah Huston, the bete noire of every contest skater over the last decade was not supposed to come back from potentially career-ending knee surgery stronger than ever. Aurelien Giraud, absolutely charging right now, had a heartbreaking best trick interlude. In between both of them, we had Sora Shirai, the Japanese avant-garde visionary who for once found consistency in his brushstrokes all the way up to the final before they deserted him when he needed them to not- and then pulled the stunt of a lifetime out of thin air just when it mattered. On the flipside of that coin were both Gustavo Ribeiro and Jagger Eaton, two chaps you might regard as money in the bank here but both of whom had their troubles with Lady Luck in Rome tonight.
Ph: Jake Darwen
Plotting his own course between those camps, Felipe Gustavo left himself a mountain to climb out of a run section which punished him missing a back tail only to pull a couple of wondrous best tricks to put him back in the mix. Got to love that Brazilian tenacity. Let’s also talk here about the no-prisoners, barnstorming of newcomer Cordano Russell, who melted minds with his unorthodox approach and total lack of intimidation- and to whom the Latin crowd responded hugely. The lack of intimidation is a quality he shares with Brazilian journeyman Kelvin Hoefler, who defies almost every challenge to carve his own path and remarkably seems to be improving endlessly.
Ph: Jake Darwen
World Street Skateboarding Rome 2023 Men's Final Results
- Nyjah Huston
- Sora Shirai
- Kelvin Hoefler
- Gustavo Ribeiro
- Felipe Gustavo
- Jagger Eaton
- Cordano Russell
- Aurelien Giraud
Might we suggest that you watch the whole smorgasbord of skateboarding excitement for yourself here if you have not done so already- and be sure to join us in Lausanne this September as the World Skateboarding Tour continues!