Carrying on from our discussion yesterday of how format changes are likely to affect contest strategy going forward, we were served today with a perfect example of why staying up in the WSR ranking matters.

To put it succinctly- the less you have to skate, the better. Skateboarding can be a cruel mistress, and the less opportunities you have to miss a trick the better. The later in the day you have to skate the better, too.

With 93 skateboarders entered into today’s Open Qualifiers, people are dropping in at breakfast time.

In an ideal world, you would be one of the 8 pre-seeded (last event’s podium plus next 5 in the World Skateboarding Ranking) who sail through into quarterfinals. Failing that, the later you have to skate the better, it would seem.

The other thing which smart skateboarders on the World Skateboarding Tour should take into account as well about Open qualifiers, is that usually there is a long mid-afternoon hiatus while pre-seeded practice takes place.

So being in, say, Heat 6 (heats are organised in reverse World Skateboarding Ranking order) can mean you drop in at 4PM which is a world of difference from doing likewise at 9AM. Particularly, if like today in Rome, lunchtime temperatures are topping out at 35 degrees centigrade (95 fahrenheit: cheers, Google).

And so to today’s Men’s Qualifier: proceedings only really burst into life in Heat 3 when Basral Hutomo’s second run fired the crowd’s starting gun.

(Quick sidebar- the fans outside the railings genuinely could not believe it when it was pointed out to them this event was free entrance- because it is unbelievable. What a city, where you can stroll off the tourist trail to see Rayssa Leal figuring out lines at lunchtime)

Let’s take a super-quick zip through some of the notable performances of both those who will skate agin this week and those who will not: Poland’s Jean Semaan is a much better skateboarder than his result suggested, but was unlucky in that his second run’s first trick frontside feeblegrind on the rail stuck and he was off- rhythm from then. Nonetheless, a clear talent.

Ditto Switzerland’s Simon Gerber, who makes it all look too easy, with a lovely crisp frontside flip among much else, but he just couldn’t tame the last backside nosebluntslide on the hubba for what would otherwise would have been a bubble-beating first run. Also south of the cut was easygoing Canadian veteran Micky Papa who took a brutal slam on his first run which you hate to see but more so when it involves one of the good guys. Someone well north of the 35 cut with both runs was Israel’s ever-more impressive Yakov Terrell who is benefitting from the wise coaching insights of veteran ripper Avi Luzia, a man worth listening to on many fronts.

Let’s also dap up South Africa’s Marci Rodrigues who had to get his arm strapped yesterday and still came back today to qualify.

How well people made it onto the cut today matters less to them than survival at this point, because all that matters is that you live to fight another day as the dice of luck will produce different numbers every day from hereon in. That is the nature of the skateboarding game, fair or not.

Let me leave you with one last thought, though:

only Dashawn Jordan (who is looking particularly sharp at this time of asking) has so far had the elasticity of thought to try and adapt his runs to those new two-stage rails now heading back towards the big section, and his long lazy nosebluntslides along and down them brought spontaneous applause from the already busy crowds.

I bet you- I bet you now- that someone will miss a cut or a podium before Sunday night is out by ignoring the possibility they offer in favour of a run they decided upon before they got there.

Join us back here tomorrow for more. In the meantime, here at the results of today’s Men’s Open Qualifiers.