Let’s get straight to the point: the Women’s final today was the highest- intensity street contest in the history of the genre, and I include the OQS Budapest event of summer 2024 which previously held that title, here.

Nanami Onishi opened proceedings with her signature high tempo energy and set the pace for what was to come. She was only able to complete that opening run but added a Never-Been-Done (NBD, to use the skateboarding acronym) backside 50-50 kickflip out which was enough to reward her with fifth place in her first-ever WST final. She is much improved even since we saw her in Italy last June, and that is a great trajectory to be on.

The biggest rollercoaster ride of the day was for Australia’s Chloe Covell, who went into the Best Trick section 5 points off the pace and looking stressed out by two runs which had come apart on the smallest of obstacles and a final one which ran out of time. Then with two trick attempts having come to naught she demanded energy from the full house and responded with a perfect-and I mean perfect - NBD frontside bluntslide bigspin out on a handrail, which is video game business that bounced her from dead last up into third and into a wave of relief which turned her day and indeed week around.

Also enjoying her first WST final was China’s Yuanling Zhu, a switchstance expert who herself added an NBD in her best trick section courtesy of a switch frontside nosegrind, a trick only seen before on the Tour from Nyjah Huston, the most decorated skateboarder of the modern era.

Her more experienced compatriot Chenxi Cui was unable to make a best trick in her three attempts, but nonetheless, two Chinese women in a WST final suggests a positive direction of travel for that nation in this Olympic discipline.

The most impressive newcomer of this entire WST Kitakyushu stop was Korea’s Jiyul Shin, who arrived as an unknown quantity and leaves less than a point off a podium place having made-in a single 45-second run- a frontside bluntslide shove it on a handrail, a kickflip backside lipslide on a rainbow rail over a six foot gap, and a tailslide to fakie on a hubba ledge. Incredible.

Top two spots went to the superb Yumeka Oda who won in Tokyo back in 2023, and looked even better here with two full runs and her signature kickflip frontside feeblegrind on the handrail. That was enough for a comfortable second place four full points above Chloe Covell, but pipping her with one of the best single tricks you will ever see was the prodigiously talented Ibuki Matsumoto who only joined the tour at WST Dubai back in March 2024.

She fired up the crowd before her last trick attempt then delivered a kickflip nosegrind in front of a packed Kitakyushu Messe in which you could have heard a pin drop. Suddenly overcome by what she had just delivered, she wept at her first but absolutely not her last WST victory. Somebody turn her pro already- she’s easily good enough.

The Men’s contest delivered a Japanese clean sweep of the podium but was also notable for the presence of three WST finals newcomers in the form of Brazil’s Wallace Gabriel, Peru’s Deivid Tuesta and Korea’s Juni Kang, who looked like he could be an outright winner before his trademark consistency deserted him not once but three times in the run section leaving him trailing the pack by too much at the halfway mark.

South America represented well with Giovanni Vianna posting both a full run and a caballerial fakie nosegrind when he needed it, and Matias Dell Olio making the most of his talent and repertoire for fourth.

In third and deservedly so was the resurgent Yukito Aoki, who having made finals twice before suddenly had everything come together for him when he needed it to. Nollie bigspin heelflip to backside lipslide after slamming heavily on the first attempt took him into a third with which he can be well pleased and hopefully he will kick on from here and return emboldened for 2026.

Former WST winner Kairi Netsuke (Dubai 2024) put down an all-time run to lead going into best trick and added a heelflip backside tailslide bigspin out (!) for a very close second having been in first right up until the very last trick of the day.

To the question we posed yesterday- is Sora Shirai too good in too many ways to be beaten?- the answer was looking like ‘no’ after he slammed heavily on his second best trick attempt and looked like he may sit out the finale.

But cometh the hour, cometh the maestro and he somehow some way managed to Do A Sora with the last roll of the dice and landed an alley oop backside ollie to fakie 5-0 on the hubba to overtake his gracious countryman by less than half a point.

While there will rightfully be praise offered up for all the skateboarders who took part in today’s finals, special mention should go to the Japanese coaching staff, who somehow manage to get the best out of more than a dozen gifted skaters at each stop.

We must conclude this wonderful 2025 season-ender by saying arigato to everyone in Kitakyushu who made this WST stop such a fantastic experience.

If you will have us back, we will return any time!