Skateboarding Park World Championships 2022 in 2023: Olympic champ Keegan Palmer leads qualifiers for semi-finals
The Australian led Gavin Bottger in the quarter-finals, but the 14-year-old American looks set to miss out after breaking his arm in Sharjah. Tokyo 2020 runner-up Pedro Barros also qualified but bronze medallist Cory Juneau failed to make the cut.
Skateboarding
Olympic gold medallist Keegan Palmer signalled his intent with top spot in the the men's quarter-finals at the 2022 Skateboarding Park World Championships in 2023 on Friday (10 February).
The Australian set the standard with a 88.33 opening run that was unrivalled by 31 other skaters trying to secure a spot in tomorrow's semi-finals.
Gavin Bottger of United States finished the night's action in second but was taken to hospital after falling on his second run.
The USA team later confirmed that 16-year-old Bottger had broken his arm and suggested he would be ruled out, saying, "We're pretty sure he needs surgery. It was a bad break."
There was some hope for 17th-placed Rune Glifberg from Denmark, but that was extinguished with Bottger - despite undergoing surgery on Saturday morning - set to appear to guarantee his finish and collect ranking points for Paris 2024 Olympic qualification.
Bottger's absence would leave seven American skaters in the semi-finals including Tokyo 2020 street bronze medallist Jagger Eaton, who competed in last week's Street World Championships at Aljada Skatepark.
Rounding out the top three was Olympic silver medallist Pedro Barros who finished just in front of his countryman Augusto Akio.
Among those missing out on tomorrow's semi-finals were pre-seeded Olympic bronze medallist Cory Juneau and Japanese national champion Nagahara Yuro.
The competition continues on Saturday with the women's and men's semi-finals beginning at 15:40 local time (UTC +4).
Earlier in the day, Kusaki Hinano of Japan qualified ahead of Sky Brown in the women's quarter-finals.
Park Skateboarding World Championships 2022: Men's Quarter-final results and best run scores
The top 16 skateboarders progress to semi-finals.
- Keegan Palmer (AUS) - 88.33
- Gavin Bottger (USA) - 85.66 (may not compete after suffering a broken arm)
- Pedro Barros (BRA) - 85.64
- Augusto Akio (BRA) - 85.62
- Tom Schaar (USA) - 85.60
- Jagger Eaton (USA) - 84.23
- Kieran Woolley (AUS) - 83.16
- Liam Pace (USA) - 80.00
- Tate Carew (USA) - 77.90
- Ash Wilcomes (AUS) - 75.30
- Heimana Reynolds (USA) - 74.40
- Alessandro Mazzara (ITA) - 73.53
- Steven Pineiro (PUR) - 73.50
- Joshua Dirksen (USA) - 73.16
- Taylor Nye (USA) - 71.76
- Vincent Matheron (FRA) - 69.37
- Rune Glifberg (DEN) - 68.66 (will make semi-finals if Gavin Bottger cannot compete)
How to watch Park Skateboarding World Championships 2022 in 2023 live
Coverage of the Park Skateboarding World Championships begins with the semi-finals on Saturday 11 February and will be available to stream live on the Olympic Channel via Olympics.com without geo-restrictions.
You can find all the latest on your favourite skateboarders including news, interviews and updates from Sharjah, on Olympics.com.