WST Dubai Street 2024: "Super happy" Netsuke Kairi wins men's final beating world champion Sora into third place
The Japanese skater moved up from second place following the run section, beating out Portugal's Gustavo Ribeiro and world champion Shirai Sora.
Japan's Netsuke Kairi held off a late charge by compatriot and world champion Shirai Sora to win the men’s final at skateboarding's WST Dubai Street 2024 event on Sunday (10 March).
"I’m really super happy," the 20-year-old world silver medallist told Olympics.com after. "I was upset when I failed the first two tricks but I made myself calmer by listening to the people around me. I needed to believe in myself to land my tricks so I told myself I could do it.
He continued: "It was my dream to win the international competition. From here, I want to do better and better and win a gold medal at the Olympics."
The Japanese skateboarder launched himself from second place after the run section into the lead, landing one of his five tricks. With a best trick score of 93.17 points, he then leapfrogged Portugal’s Gustavo Ribeiro, who had been in front courtesy of a superior first run.
Shirai languished near the bottom of the standings after bailing on his first run and scoring a below-par 69.98. However, he catapulted himself to the top of the leaderboard with a score of 94.14 on his first trick.
Needing 99.63 to relegate Kairi to second place, Shirai delivered the best score of the trick section with a stunning cab sugarcane to score 97.07 and finish third on 261.19. Ribeiro finished as runner-up with 263.70.
Earlier, Olympic champion Horigome Yuto failed to advance to the final after he failed to put a clean run down on his first attempt and scored 71.90 on his second, missing the cut by 0.13 points.
WST Dubai Street 2024: Men's final results and best run scores
- Netsuke Kairi (JPN) – 263.74 (85.21 + 85.36 + 93.17)
- Gustavo Ribeiro (POR) – 263.70 (89.30 + 84.29 + 90.11)
- Shirai Sora (JPN) – 261.19 (69.98 + 94.14 + 97.07)
- Onodera Ginwoo (JPN) – 241.77 (59.58 + 92.24 + 89.95)
- Richard Tury (SVK) – 219.32 (52.34 + 83.14 + 83.84)
- Ryan Decenzo (CAN) – 168.00 (82.18 + 85.82 + 0.00)
- Matt Berger (CAN) – 159.37 (68.49 + 90.88 + 0.00)
- Aoki Yukito (JPN) – 84.92 (84.92 + 0.00 + 0.00)
Full results can be found here.