Since the most recent WST stop in Rome last June, the rolling 18-month results window has caused some flux in the World Skateboarding Ranking heading into WST Kitakyushu at the end of November.
Let’s zoom in on how the deck has been shuffled going into the tail end of the 2025 WST season, shall we?
In the Men’s division, Toa Sasaki has maintained his post-Paris momentum by being the only repeat face on the Men’s podium between his 2024 World Championship victory and June’s WST Rome second place- and is currently sitting 40,000 points clear at the top of the WSR.
The only other skateboarder in the Men’s division currently sitting on north of 100,000 points is Toa’s teammate Ginwoo Onodera who, Paris aside, is never far from the podium.
Remarkably, despite that fact, he has never managed to claim an outright victory on the WST- as yet.
Will WST Kitakyushu be his coming-of-age- home victory?
Order-shaking newcomer to the top 10 is Colombia’s Jhancarlos Gonzalez who used that hefty point attribution from his 2024 World Championship bronze and a useful 9th at WST Rome 2025 to head up the leaderboard; meanwhile, quite a few other established names are currently headed in the opposite direction- including seemingly perennial finalist Richard Tury.
The Slovakian contest veteran uncharacteristically crashed out early in the qualification rounds for WST Rome 2025, and posted a Tour-worst 29th place- which has hurt his standing by one position for 7th; although with that said, he remains the highest-ranked European in Men’s Street on the WST.
That fact is due in no small part to Gustavo Ribeiro’s 10-place drop from 8th to 18th, a plummet caused by his three eligible performances from the last 18 months consisting of his patchy OQS performances and an uncharacteristic quarterfinals exit at the 2024 World Championship.
As with Ginwoo, Gustavo is yet to win a WST stop: but, as demonstrated when he missed out on doing so in Dubai by just 0.04 of a point, he is well capable of doing so- and it would be a huge statement of intent if he did just that in the Japanese team’s backyard.
Anyone looking for a potential outside upset in Men's Street could do worse than zone in on Korea's Juni Kang- who, although having only joined the Tour at WST Rome last June, (and placed 12th) has enough talent to really break through with just a little more composure.
Interestingly, while only two men currently have in excess of 100,000 WSR points in the bank, four women have.
Three of those, unsurprisingly, are Japanese- although which three may not have been expected 18 months ago: Coco Yoshizawa retains her hard-fought pole position for now; but, not having made a podium since Paris will begin to tell soon enough- unless she can correct that in Kitakyushu late November.
In 3rd comes a resurgent Funa Nakayama, about whom you can read more in our rather excellent interview with her ahead of WST Kitakyushu here.
The Tokyo bronze medalist is battling back from injury (collarbone), but had a confidence-restoring second place at WST Rome in June to put her back in the mix.
The filling in that sandwich is Brazil’s Rayssa Leal in 2nd position: the point allocation for her OQS Shanghai and 2024 World Championship victories alone would have been enough for fourth; she will look upon not making the finals at WST Rome 2025 as a missed opportunity to go back top of the rankings.
Further down the rankings- but certainly not off the pace- are Liz Akama, Momiji Nishiya and Yumeka Oda in spots 4 to 6 respectively; each of whom have won WST stops in the past and all of whom are capable of doing so again.
Worthy of your attention also is Chinese 15-year-old Chenxi Cui who- while never (as yet) making it onto a WST podium- has made it into the finals of the last 5 stops she has entered, demonstrating consistency while recording a best-ever 4th place at WST Rome last June thanks to an expanding trick repertoire.
Remember: the ever-rising competitive standard on the WST means that even incremental rewards will prove decisive as the pathway narrows toward LA28, so even a slight improvement in results for her now could see her very well positioned indeed, just when she needs to be.
Conversely, the skateboarder of whom we have seen least since the OQS- but also the one most likely to produce leaderboard leaping performances- is America’s Poe Pinson.
With more pop and power than most of those above her in the rankings, she only has to be lucky once- her 4th place in Shanghai demonstrating just that possibility.
With all that said: we are descending upon Japan for a contest in which 60% of the top 10 WSR slots across divisions are held by the host nation, so we can expect a massive showing from the home team.
For purposes of comparison, the last time the WST alighted in the land of the rising sun, only Rayssa Leal prevented a Japanese clean sweep- so all visitors will need A-game+ to be engaged this time around.
Time for the stoke to return: see you in Japan in just under two weeks!