Having received a question via our livechat about contest strategy earlier, it is interesting to reflect on how the opening four runs of a Heat can shape the entire outcome.

Skateboarders on the World Skateboarding Tour begin planning their runs before they even arrive at the park.
In truth, some individual skateboarders build exact obstacle replicas to give themselves trick options on lock- or close to it- for very eventuality.

The first days of practice are used to dial in their anticipated opening run, and then if all goes well they will build out from there or return to it if it doesn’t work out right away.
However, there is one graduated advantage to be had in dropping in as late as possible in the running order: you get to see what everybody else has done before, and adjust accordingly as needs be.

But what if (as happened in yesterday’s semifinals) someone like Brazil’s Gui Khury just qualifies from the day before and therefore has to skate at the top of the order and rather than bank an early mid-70’s run to ensure that they will beat anybody who blows their run entirely- instead goes hell for leather right out of the gate with a heater of a run which no safety run is going to touch.

This is where coaching strategy comes into play, because with no time to figure out a new run, each skateboarder will have to look at where on the fixed points of their line they can slot in trick upgrades to try and stay in contention.
So the ability to react and adapt at what might be only a matter of seconds’ notice is where the very, very best are able to peel away from those who came with a single idea in mind, and no contingency plan if that proved to be less than enough to close the gap created by an early breakaway.

That’s exactly what happened in Women’s Park finals- Finland’s Heili Sirvio dropped in 3rd and logged an 81.5 in a Run where most might have been expected to bank a comfortable opening mid-70’s and after that the whole hornet's nest was shaken up.

Only Sky Brown and Cocona Hiraki- who recovered well from a shaky semifinals performance- brought home first run scores high enough to keep them in contention.
To be honest, it was Sky- who qualified from semis in first- who set the agenda throughout this final, with an unprecedented three runs over 90 points each- read that back- before the magic opportunity presented by the ‘Golden Run’ format produced a moment of pure WST wizardry. 

Diminutive Japanese 15-year-old Mizuho Hasegawa- who had far from a clear passage through the contest- produced a run guided by pure inspiration just when she needed to, and popped out 45 seconds later with the highest-ever score in Women’s Park on the World Skateboarding Tour. 

96.33 points worth of pure bedlam in the stands- and when Sky could not find a reply of her own, victory went to Mizuho who won for the first time here last year. 

Cocona had her best heat of the week in a park she clearly likes- she won the 2023 World Championship here- but although she is tactically brilliant in her ability to upgrade her runs and had a perfect trio of them herself, she came in a distant third: four points shy of Sky and fully seven short of Mizuho.

If that wasn’t drama enough, Men’s was the all-time classic showdown that it had threatened to be from semifinals.

There is neither space nor superlatives to do tonight’s Men’s final just save to say it was the highest standard of skating ever seen in Men’s Park anywhere, ever.
A new benchmark.

By the end of 3 Runs every skater going into the ‘Golden Run’ had already banked a score higher than 90 points- which had never happened before. 

On top of that, Japan’s Issei Sakurai- who arrived in Rome only the 4th highest-ranked Japanese skater in his division, lying 20th in the World Skateboarding Ranking and never having placed higher than 16th up until now- replicated Sky’s three-run, 90+ sweepstake with the most insane and complete performance of all-time in this genre, complete with powerslides on the teardrop and 540’s higher than a giraffe’s haircut.

Tom Schaar chased him down hard for second but slammed heavily on his last roll of the dice and Egoitz Bijueska, who was himself flawless and magnificent, left it all out there on the dancefloor for the best third place performance you are ever likely to see, better even than his victory here last year. That’s how fast things progress on the World Skateboarding Tour.

Before we depart for WST World Cup Rome Street in Colle Oppio, we as an organisation would like to thank the entire Spot Skatepark team and especially their security crew, who went out of their way to get as many local kids in there to have their minds blown as possible today, in both safety and fairness. 

A meticulous and professional job: grazie mille.