Today’s Quarterfinals began with Men, and Silas Aagaard-Hagen showed no show-opening nerves with a full first run with two flip-to-slide variations, a Frontside 270 to Lipslide and a Gap to Lipslide over the big bump to bar to get things rolling for the top forty who were split into four heats of ten with the top 16 proceeding to Semifinals.

Heat 1 saw Canadian contest veteran Micky Papa show why he is still ruling at 36 with two perfect runs including a Kickflip Frontside 50-50 handrail ender on his second, which is mighty treacherous. His teammate Cordano Russell had less luck, getting absolutely bodied on a Fakie Heeflip Front Board which would have finished anybody else off.

The heat was most notable, however, for presenting three of the great emerging new wave talents of street skating today: Tijmen Overbeek, Kristion Jordan and Filipe Mota. Filipe made the Heelflip Back Tail opener on the hubba which had been giving him all sorts of trouble in a do-or-die moment at the start of his second run, and became the only one of those three to survive the cut.

Also progressing out of Heat 1 was Brazil’s Matheus Mendes, who managed to complete a full second run despite missing-of all things- a tail stall on the quarterpipe, which slipped into a Disaster that he still managed to hold onto.

Men’s Heat 2 got off to a more fractious start, with only Yakov Terrell, Max Berguin and Joe Hinson making their first runs- and none of those three were able to build out from there, meaning it fell to Taisei Hamamura to make a storming second run- including a Caballerial Back Lip, Kickflip Back Lip, Gap To Crooks and a Kickflip Crooked Grind ender on the hubba- to become the sole skater from that group to go forward into Saturday’s action.

Heat 3 was a step-change in intensity, with Filipe Mota’s lead from Heat 1 changing hands twice in back-to back runs, first to Matias Dell Olio and then to Ginwoo Onodera straight after.

Rocco Muller was unable to thread together a run but as MC Lucy Adams noted, there were ‘glimpses of brilliance’ within it.

Nyjah Huston returned to the World Skateboarding Tour and booked his ticket straight through to Semis with his first run which opened with a Nollie Nosegrind on the handrail and ended with a Nollie Backside Nosebluntslide on the A-frame with a further six heaters in between: the ace is back.

The back half of Men’s Heat 3 saw something of a collapse in consistency with Jhancarlos Gonzalez, Beau Brunclair, Nyjah Huston, Matias Dell Olio and Braden Hoban all unable to complete their chosen lines which left the door open for Heat 4 to claim their places in Saturday’s Semifinals if they could deliver as they wanted- but here’s the thing: nobody in Heat 4 delivered two full runs.

Of the 10 skaters in Heat 4, only Angelo Caro, Toa Sasaki and Sora Shirai opened their accounts as they intended. Toa’s textbook run: Grapefruit grind on the handrail, Gap to Backside Nosebluntslide on the Bump to Bar, signature stratospheric Backside 360 to flat et al- was the first score of the day to break the 80-mark.

He was joined up there by Gio Vianna’s vital second run, complete with Caballerial Frontside Noseslide showstopper, as everyone else made their second runs when they needed to- although Riso Tury and Wallace Gabriel’s were not enough to secure their Saturday berth.

Women’s Quarterfinals took place straight after as the suddenly wall-to-wall sunshine (go figure, right?) framed a gorgeous evening descending upon the Paraguayan capital.

Australia’s Liv Lovelace picked up where she left off yesterday by claiming the Heat 1 lead with the only score above 60 points from that Heat.

She managed to hold off most of Heat 2 despite a resurgent Pamela Rosa’s double full-run assault, replete with those gap-to-rail attacks she does better than anyone save, possibly, Poe Pinson.

Abbie Burns threatened to put up big numbers but was robbed on the Kickflip Shove-It right at the end of her second run when she had done all the hard work, but she should be well pleased with her performance in Paraguay regardless: she has improved a lot since we first met her on the WST, and quickly.

Towards the bottom end of Heat 2 there were two changes of lead back -to-back just as in Men’s earlier- and just like in Men’s, that is a surefire sign of a gear change in the overall tempo of the contest.

Paige Heyn used that untouchable switch stance repertoire to move on up before Wenhui ‘Zoe’ Zeng pipped her with a scorcher of a run ending in a Back Tail on the A-frame rail to close out the second Heat.

Heat 3 was sparked to life by the return to top form of the superb Liz Akama, possessor of the best Frontside Bigspin in the game- with which she opened a run that included and equally gangster Back Smith on the handrail, and was rounded out with a Frontside 180 Fakie Nosegrind on the hubba for the first score to bust through the 70-mark, and send out a message to everyone yet to drop in.

The skater who most closely resembles Liz Akama’s venomous style is Korea’s Jiyul Shin, who has emerged during Liz’s Finals absence since WST Kitakyushu back in 2025 and she joined Liz north of 70 with a blitzkrieg run of her own which consisted of three A-frame hammers (Back Smith, Tailslide Fakie and Back Lip, a-thank you) as well as a Frontside Bluntslide on the handrail in 45 seconds to set up a tantalising showdown between the two of them over the weekend.

Flic Turner managed to add the Kickflip Frontside 50-50 which had evaded her in Run 1 at the first time of asking on her second attempt in a 45 seconds which also included a Frontside 50-50 on the handrail, Lipslide on the A-frame and one of the best-flicked Kickflips you will ever see to book her Semifinal spot with a solidity that you don’t see everywhere in women’s skateboarding.

Heat 4 was something of a curate’s egg, in the sense that some of the top flight did just enough to secure their Saturday slot while others went for broke.

WST newcomer Ria Tanno drew the short straw in opening proceedings and stacked her opening trick, but came back to deliver bigly on her second and celebrated like someone who just won Christmas.

Cora Wilton likewise did enough with her second run to break the 60 mark- but had to wait on events, as several potential finalists had fluffed their opening runs and still had a redemption shot after her.

Nanami Onishi came back from a big slam to take her second run with a courage few of us could ever fathom.

She was unable to make a full second run, but her heroism won over the Paraguayan crowd and rightly so. Yumeka Oda followed Nanami, needing a second run of her own, lying as she was in 21st- and she put in what Ryan Decenzo described as a ‘super-solid run’ to advance, as we all hoped she would.

Undeniably the best on the night, though, was Chloe Covell who is beginning to peel away from most of the pack in terms of consistency and trick bag: Frontside Overcook on the rail to open, Back Smith on the Hubba to build on it, added a Crook Nollie Flip out on the flat bar in her second run and the only scores above 80 tonight.

Chloe’s final run was a prelude to Ibuki Matsumoto going down to the wire with a make-or-break second run which needed to beat Flic Turner’s 59.69 in order to progress.

After an agonising wait, she just barely missed out- and our Semifinalists were locked in for Saturday just as you see them below!