So a glorious evening here in Paraguay brought us to Semifinals time at the 2026 Street Skateboarding World Championships, being held at this brand new street course located within the sprawling Paraguayan Olympic Committee park as part of the biennial World Skate Games.

A full house of skateboarding fans in full throat were fired up by a product toss before kickoff and never let up throughout.

The tale of the tape for Men’s Semifinals 16 looked like 7 Japanese, 4 Brazilians, 2 Americans and one skater each from Korea, Peru and Argentina.

The only two newcomers to semifinals stage on the World Skateboarding Tour out of those 16 were Japan’s Taisei Hamamura and Brazil’s Matheus Mendes, who got us underway with a nerveless full opening run to ensure the pursuing pack had a pacemaker.

Dropping in after him and among the hungriest skaters in the mix was Taiga Nagai, who as well as putting in two full runs- which is far from common at this level- including an 83, made a textbook Bigspin Frontside Bluntslide Shove It out in his first Best Trick attempt- but was unable to build out from there although it was still an assured-enough performance to see him through to his first finals in fourth place.

Nyjah Huston uncharacteristically hesitated on his opening Switch Tailslide and left himself chasing the pack as Ivan Monteiro and Angelo Caro joined Mendes and Nagai in pulling away with full runs at the end of Run 1.

Kairi Netsuke gambled on a Tailslide Heelflip to Fakie on the buzzer at the end of an otherwise perfect opening run and got a little squirrelly with it, but was still in the mix going into Run 2 when he delivered a perfect one- including the one that got away first time around. In so doing, he went into the lead as Best Trick loomed, being one of only 3 to break the 80 point mark with 3 trick attempts to go.

When only two of the running order- Mendes and Nagai- made their opening Best Tricks, the possibility of an upset loomed, with Nyjah and Filipe Mota compounding their Run section troubles with a best Trick section neither would have hoped for.

Nyjah added the Nollie Heel Back Lip which had defied him during Run 2, but Filipe came away empty handed.

Faring better was semifinals newcomer Taisei Hamamura, who produced a Hardflip Back Tail on the handrail with his last roll of the dice despite not even trying it in practice, although having snapped his board during a do-or-die Run 2 he had no chance of progressing- but the crowd absolutely loved it.

Also a crowd darling was Peru’s Angelo Caro, who had one of his best performances on the Tour to date by not only being the first into the 80’s with his opening run, but adding both a sensational Backside 180 Fakie Nosegrind 180 Out on the hubba and a 360 Flip Nosebluntslide on the handrail in Best trick for the judges to choose from. Wallop.

Dominator of Heat 1, though, was the aforementioned Kairi Netsuke, who added a Heelflip Front Blunt and a Heelflip Back Tail Bigspin out on the handrail to know that Heat 2 would have to perform miracles for him not to skate again come Sunday.

Heat 2 didn’t get off to a miracle start by any estimation: the first four to drop in came unstuck on their runs and it took Korea’s Juni Kang in slot 5 to steady the ship with a full run which he improved upon  in Run 2 to set out his stall as one of the biggest threats to the established order in recent times on the WST.

Dropping in right after Juni was Brazilian heavy hitter Gio Vianna who like Angelo Caro had his most complete performance for some time: two absolutely flawless runs and two Caballerial heaters in Best Trick- to Back Tail, and to Fakie Nosegrind- to book his finals spot with gas still in the tank.

Unable to join him there at this time of asking was Jagger Eaton, who defied ankle troubles to go all-in but like his US teammate Nyjah Huston in the Heat before he exited the Run section already off the pace and was only able to stick his first Best Trick- a Switch Backside 180 Fakie Nosegrind.

That meant we knew there would be no American representation in the finals, but what was perhaps more surprising was that Japanese duo Yuto Horigome and Sora Shirai will likewise be watching from the bleachers after both missed their opening tricks of Run 1 and last tricks from Run 2 (absolute last trick from Sora, second-to-last for Yuto) which meant that they were at the mercy of their clinical compatriots Toa Sasaki and Ginwoo Onodera. Sora, for his part, got the cheer of the semis and sparked a Mexican wave with the best Cab Back Tail Bigspin out ever with his first Best Trick, but carrying a hamstring injury it was a consolation prize for him.

Toa had the second highest Run score of the Heat with his opener and then boxed clever to push Matias Dell Olio off the bubble with a Caballerial Backside Nosebluntslide which believe it or not is a banker trick for him, while Ginwoo Onodera shut the whole operation down: the only skater of the whole contest to date to throw a Kickflip into the Gap to Rail with a full-clip Kickflip Backlip to open Run 2, he added a Bigflip Front Board on the rail, Caballerial kickflip on the quarter, Kickflip Back Tail on the Hubba and a Backside Flip off the diving board kicker for the highest scoring Run of the day with an untouchable 86.8 before adding to it with a Switch 270 to Bluntslide on the rail and a Kickflip Back Tail Bigspin out in Best Trick to shut the whole shop down as the crowd lapped it up.

Before we leave Men’s behind, it would be remiss of us not to shine a light on the only 90+ score of Best trick- Juni Kang’s Gap To Suciu Grind, which he didn’t even practice.

Absolute scenes in the stands to tee up a big Sunday here in sunny Asunción.

Women’s Semifinals had a distinctly more international flavour than Men’s: 4 Japanese, 4 Australians, 2 Brazilians, 2 Chinese,1 Canadian,1 American,1 Korean and 1 Spanish skaters ready to drop in as the sun sank and temperatures plummeted dramatically in Paraguay.

This was a particularly strong showing from the Ozzies, who have never put such a force together at this level in the Women’s game up until now.

Of those 16, Australia’s Flic Turner, Brazil’s Maria Lucia and China’s Yun Hong were all appearing in their first semifinals and those opening nerves seemed too permeate right down through the running order in Heat 1 as all 8 skaters had broken opening runs- which suddenly opens up all sorts of permutations as to how events might unfold with the addition of a Best Trick section which offers three opportunities for redemption.

It took Spain’s Daniela Terol- the only European still standing on Saturday- to galvanise proceedings with a solid second run that invited everyone else to step up or step off.

Having tried twice to stick the Front Blunt she had worked so hard to tame in practice during her Best Trick attempts, she took the tactically astute decision to cash in a Back Smith with her final attempt and play the long game, hoping that the patchwork performances of Heat 1 would continue into the one after.

Cora Wilton stepped up to Daniela’s full-run challenge as did Maria Lucia, who had a better start than her superstar compatriot Rayssa Leal who couldn’t quite make her runs gel and instead relied on her Best Trick arsenal to see her through.

Her first-try Front Blunt was enough to guarantee safe passage through to finals, but the Noseblunt Shove It out she has been getting close to both in practice and here on her third attempt suggest that she has some new moves to add to the mix when the time comes. Maria, for her part, elected to go for a Switch Front Board with her first Best Trick, and in stomping it turned her first semis into her first finals, finishing 6th on the night.

Although the terrible twosome of Flic Turner and Liv Lovelace were unable to make finals as a result of those run section nerves, they were good value for money in Best Trick, with each making their first two- and Liv going back once the Heat was wrapped to try and bring hime the Backside Flip off the kicker, snapping her board in the process.

With Cora Wilton leading on 142.26 at the end of Heat 1, she, Maria Lucia and Daniela Terol all had to wait and see how Heat 2 played out before they knew their fate.

The warning signs were there when Yumeka Oda, Coco Yoshizawa, Jiyul Shin, Liz Akama and Chloe Covell all stormed their first runs with scores north of 70: that meant that for each of them, a Best Trick score of the calibre of Daniela Terol’s 70-ish Back Smith on the hubba or better would see them through.

In the end, few of those trailblazers elected to play safe, with Yumeka Oda doubling down on her superb Run performance with a crazy back foot catch on a Kickflip Front Board to sail through, while Jiyul Shin logged a perfect Front Blunt Shove with her first attempt to confirm she is absolutely part of the elite in this space right now. Chloe, for her part, snapped a perfect Kickflip down the stairs first try and was chilling from there, all smiles.

Having seen what Yumeka’s Best Trick was worth, Coco did likewise to power into the next round while a resurgent Liz Akama somehow managed to make heavy weather of one of her signature tricks as she stumbled out of two Barley Grinds- and then barely held onto a final one, which slipped out into a Boardslide but such was the strength of her Run score that even that sketchy make was enough-just enough- to edge out Daniela Terol for 8th and book a spot in the finals.

Such are the fortunes of war.