Olympic Qualifier Series: No easy way out from Budapest to Paris for Japan's skateboarders
With one last contest at the 20-23 June Olympic Qualifier Series in Budapest, the heat is on for elite Japanese street skaters as some of the sport's biggest names are in peril for Paris 2024.
Skateboarding
'Too close to call' doesn’t even begin to describe how intense the competition has become for the Japanese street skateboarders.
After a heated four days at the Olympic Qualifier Series in Shanghai two weeks ago, what was already a tight competition for places at Paris 2024 just got tighter in the men’s and women’s street for Japan.
As many as six competitors in each gender still have a mathematical shot at securing one of the three quotas up for grabs at the Olympic Games this summer and given the depth of Japanese skateboarding, not even a crystal ball or clairvoyance can predict which three will go through.
Which brings up Horigome Yuto, the Tokyo 2020 men’s street champion who is skating on very thin ice following the results in Shanghai.
Defending Olympic men's street champion Horigome Yuto is on the ropes of Paris 2024 qualification.
Horigome Yuto: Back against the wall
Without question the face of the sport in Japan, Horigome failed to even reach the semi-finals in the first leg of the OQS - by a miniscule 0.07 - in the two-run format of the preliminaries which clearly did not suit him.
Going into Shanghai, Horigome was ranked fourth among the Japanese men and was already under pressure to deliver but fell further from the pack to fifth, more than 200,000 points out of first place now occupied by 14-year-old prodigy Onodera Ginwoo, who is also the global leader in the qualifying race.
For Horigome to have any chance of making it to Paris, he would need to finish in the top six at the second leg of the OQS in Budapest next month, while hoping his five compatriots pick up as few points as possible.
The likelihood that Onodera, Netsuke Kairi (second from Japan), world champion Shirai Sora (No. 3), Sasaki Toa (No. 4) and even Aoki Yukito, who is just below Horigome, would all miss out on a chunk of points seems fairly low, given their prevalence around the podium.
Yet never underestimate the heart of a champion. He has come up short in the qualifying campaign so far but Horigome still has all the ability in the world to win Budapest outright and if he should, or even jump on to the podium, talk about drama.
Oda Yumeka had a rough outing in Shanghai, failing to get past the prelims and finishing 18th overall.
A battle royale in women's contest
Shanghai certainly changed the outlook for the Japanese women.
Reigning Olympic champion Nishiya Momiji was No. 1 in the world but is now fifth overall, clinging on to Japan’s third spot ahead of Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Nakayama Funa, who appears to be peaking at the right time after struggling most of last year from the aftermath of a broken collarbone.
Oda Yumeka - absolutely dying to make it to the Games after narrowly missing out last time - was second behind Nishiya in Japan prior to Shanghai, where she did not make it out of the heats to end up 18th. Oda dropped to fifth in her country's rankings and will need a big skate in Budapest should she realise her Olympic dreams.
If one were a betting man, Akama Liz would have to be it. In Shanghai, the 15-year-old was runner-up to winner Rayssa Leal by only 0.54 and shot up the standings to No. 1 in Japan. She has been the most consistent among the Japanese talent pool throughout the qualifiers - despite breaking her collarbone and pelvis in August last year - and there's no reason to doubt Akama now.
But who knows? Fourteen-year-old Yoshizawa Coco was fifth in Japan before Shanghai; she is currently second riding into Budapest after securing bronze in Round 1 of OQS. Should Miyu Ito, sixth out of the six Japanese females, throw it down on the day anything can happen.
And perhaps that is the beauty of the Olympic Qualifier Series.