The experience must be the same for rock bands: the show doesn’t start until sunset but all through the day you feel the nervous tension build as showtime approaches.

Although from a World Skateboarding Tour perspective, this 2025 season kick off at World Cup Rome Park is not decisive in any way, what we saw last night gives everybody here the sense that we could just be about to witness history being made once again- and the stakes don’t get higher than that.

Put it like this: Egoitz Bijueska’s semifinal score was identical to Keegan Palmer’s Tokyo gold score. That, my friends, is progression.

In a sense that’s what is wonderful about the World Skateboarding Tour: individual events may carry more point distribution or bragging rights, but the one constant trajectory throughout is the constant progression in standard from stop to stop. That is down to one thing alone: the skateboarders themselves. Pushing one another, pushing themselves. It is a privilege and an honour to witness it first-hand. But if we feel those palpable butterflies just watching this showdown, how must the skateboarders themselves be feeling?

For those about to rock, Rome salutes you and all that.

Here’s what went down.

In the first instance, we should highlight the dynamic impact which the ‘golden run’ had on proceedings. This new twist for WST 2025 means the top 5 after regular runs are complete have another chance to blow up the leaderboard courtesy of an extra run complete with first-trick rebate that allows competitors to gamble big once right at the start. It took the drama up to a whole new level.

What was remarkable about the Women’s final here was how being a stealth competitor benefited eventual winner Mizuho Hasegawa. After a nervy start which took until the 5th drop-in for us to see a complete run (Arisa Trew, naturally) it was the ever- dependable Cocona Hiraki who steadied the ship with-once again 3 full regular runs to lead for most of the contest. But then a fightback led by Mizuho and a sensational second run by Arisa- she is a pioneer, as Marc Churchill noted- started to see Cocona slip down the rankings.

When Naia Laso delivered probably her best run to date on the Tour (backside kickflip stalefish is quite the trick!), Cocona looked like she might for the first time in memory not be on the podium at the end of this thing.

To give you a sense of how the golden run switched things up, Hinano Kusaki bounced herself up from 5th place to 3rd courtesy of a run which had the stands rocking. Cocona was suddenly in trouble of missing out on a top 3 spot- but she is disciplined, very well coached and strategically savvy. A fourth complete run with just a few adjustments like nosegrind to lipslide was enough to get her back into third.

All that notwithstanding, nobody could bump Mizuho Hasegawa off her perch at the top and her golden run was also a victory lap, which she also nailed, for her first ever World Skateboarding Tour win.

And so to the Men’s division. As you may be aware, semifinals yesterday was a heater so expectations were high but there were some crazy derailments along the way tonight.

Pedro Carvalho is the quintessential skateboarder’s skateboarder and it was a delight to have him in his first finals. Having had a false start in his second run he almost pulled off the run of his life but somehow fell off on a 50-50 your old mum could do. There were screams of disbelief from the crowd. It wasn’t his day but he will take comfort knowing he made it this far with poise and reassurance. We hope to see him in Washington.

Joining him in his first final was equally rad countryman Luiz Mariano who overcooked his first run and couldn’t bring home a double flip melon(!) until his final run and was in with a shot at golden run redemption before Yuro Nagahara did the wildest thing.

Having fallen off his board before even leaving the platform he lost a full run and looked like it was going to be another ‘what might have been’s for him. He did just enough with a burly but imperfect last run to get into the golden run and then pulled off a stormer for second place and his first ever WST podium.

Alessandro Mazzara’s barnstorming final run looked like it would finally put him on the blocks in front of his home crowd, but he celebrated with three seconds to go on the clock when a mini-ramp lip trick would have made the difference and he had to settle for fourth by 0.16 of a point.

Gui Khury was phenomenal all week and equally so tonight including two more 900s (it was that sort of night). Why he sought to upgrade his hardest tricks instead of basics like lipslides when he only needed a couple of points to topple Egoitz Bijueska only he will know but he is as good a skateboarder as ever lived and raised the tempo of the Tour no end. Superb.

However, like Mizuho in Women’s, Spain’s Egoitz Bijueska just could not be caught. 10 months ago here he looked as nervous as could be but Alain Goikoetxea has done a brilliant coaching job there and he is, at 15, already magnificent. A first WST win, and a star is born.

Two hot takes from tonight? The fact that the winners were 14 and 15 years old respectively suggests a changing of the guard is coming in Park, and the number of 90+ scores on both scoreboards tells you the golden run has been a great addition.

Before we sign off, all our thanks and appreciation to all the staff both of the Spot Skatepark and World Skate for their tireless work on a very long, very hot week of skateboard action.

Without you all we could not operate as we do.