As you may be aware, for WST Rome Park we have been livestreaming the entire event as opposed to just the weekend’s action and it has been illuminating to say the least. 70,000 of you tuned in during the first two days alone.

What has been most interesting to see, however, has been regions come online and go offline only to be replaced by others as the 12-hour early days pass.

We have had viewers pop into the livechat from as far apart as New Zealand and Argentina, the Reunion Islands to New York City. Included in that number, as we hoped might be the case, have been family members of the skateboarders doing battle here in Italy. Firing flags and emojis at their loved ones in that basically pointless but ever-so-wholesome way that parents and siblings do, willing the skater in their lives onward closer to their dreams.
That in itself has proven the endeavour to be worthwhile- and remember, we are doing likewise for Street next week, too.

And so, in the words of inexplicably popular trance DJ Tiësto: let’s get down to business.

That song's in your head now, isn't it? Sorry about that.

First up today was Women’s quarterfinals, which saw Australia’s Arisa Trew, Japan’s Mizuho Hasegawa, Finland’s Heili Sirvio and Great Britain’s Sky Brown trade heavy runs for the top end of the leaderboard- but the real stories lay further down.
Foremost among those was Misugu Okamoto progressing in 8th place after a 5-year hiatus: however she does tomorrow, or indeed Sunday, what a comeback tale that is.

Also worthy of note is China’s Scrabble-busting Xiuqiancheng Han, who starts her runs with the Omar Hassan approved lipslide roll-in and deservedly goes into the last 16 in only her second WST outing. Above her in 13th is the ever-improving American Joey Yarbrough, who likewise already has her best-ever Tour result regardless as she makes it into her first semifinals, too.

Most striking of all is this statistic, however: of the top 8 women today, the results are separated by almost 9 full points; of the remaining 12, the margin is just over 3 points.
As a tale of the tape, that is a pretty good snapshot of where there is distance within the field in terms of standard- and where it is getting super-congested.

Big story of Men’s quarterfinals was Pedro Barros making three full runs, which is almost unheard of for someone who skates right on the edge of sanity as he does. Could this be Pedro’s first WST win? On today’s evidence, don’t bet against it. He is looking more in-focus than ever, somehow. 

Also having a mad one was USA’s Luke Kahler who we hadn’t seen since WST Dubai 2024, and had dropped out of the top 100 altogether. He had a super last run complete with a Kickflip Body Jar which is a spicy meatball as a single trick, never mind mid-run.

From a domestic viewpoint, the good news is that Italy have two rippers going into the semifinals- and the surprise is that neither is local hero Ale Mazzara. Guglielmo Marin and Ivan Federico are both through, Ivan for the first time and Guglielmo for only the second.

So, Saturday is a new day: more than any other qualification round, quarterfinals is sometimes the filter which separates the supernaturally-talented from the simply amazing.
At this attritional level the difference between success and failure is measured in tiny increments, and you may begin to see those who are skating on the edge of their ability just fall away somewhat against those who have got aces up their sleeve and gas in the tank still. 

By the time semifinals rolls around tomorrow, any of the those 16 men and women could make it into finals, but the calibre of skater not quite making quarterfinals cut from 40 down to 16 this time around shows just high the standard has become. 

Cruel it certainly is- and there were some hearts broken today, no doubt- but even getting close to the cut into that semifinals 16 takes some doing in this day and age. Everyone who skated today can be proud.
With that said, the weekend is here, and these are your semifinalists- bring it on!