Canadian Decenzo leads last-chance men’s field for Rio street skate finals

Ryan Decenzo ran the field at the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) from Rio’s Olympic Park on Saturday to move through to the men’s SLS Super Crown Championship Final on 6 November with a score of 26.2.

The Canadian, who dominated the gaps and rails of the massive Rio course, will be followed into Sunday’s final round by Team USA pair Jagger Eaton (26.1) and Braden Hoban (25.9).

Brazilian Felipe Gustavo also moves through to the final round after finishing fourth (25.8).

"It’s the Super Crown and so I just skated like it was a final," said Decenzo, who hung on to his top spot from the first of four heats on a long night of street skating in Brazil. "I tried to set the bar a little higher for the the other guys.”

The winning quartet from Saturday’s qualifiers join the already points-qualified finalists in a field of eight on Sunday with podium places on the line.

Gustavo Ribeiro of Portugal comes in as the number-one seed followed by Frenchman Vincent Milou, American Chris Joslin and Olympic champion Horigome Yuto of Japan.

Nakayama tops last-chance women

Earlier on Saturday, four last-chance women's qualifiers fought through with Nakayama Funa leading the way.

The Japanese front crook specialist topped the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) field to move through to the women’s SLS Super Crown Championship Final on 6 November with a high-flying combined score of 14.6 on the street course.

She’ll be joined by fellow last-chance qualifiers Poe Pinson, Gabriela Mazetta and Zeng Wenhui.

They meet up with the already qualified Brazilian skater Rayssa Leal, who tops the rankings after going undefeated in all three previous SLS events in the U.S. (Jacksonville, Seattle and Las Vegas), and her countrywoman and 2021 defending champion Pamela Rosa.

Japanese youngster Oda Yumeka and Olympic champion Nishiya Momiji round out the eight-skater field.

The competition (men’s and women’s) concludes tomorrow (Sunday 6 November) with the final round to decide the 2022 Street League Skateboarding (SLS) Super Crown champions.