WST Rome Park World Championships 2023: Gavin Bottger leaves it late to take men's title
After a broken wrist ended his hopes at the last World Championships, Bottger laid down a superb third and final run to win gold from Luigi Cini and Tate Carew.
Skateboarding
USA's Gavin Bottger put together a spectacular third run to take the men's title at the 2023 WST Rome Park World Championships on Sunday (8 October).
The 16-year-old skateboarder, whose broken wrist ended his medal hopes at the last Worlds in Sharjah in February, looked shocked as he was awarded 94.03, which was enough to win him gold.
That left skateboarders from the United States occupying all three medal positions, but semi-final winner Luigi Cini was the last man to go and the Brazilian took silver with a score of 91.90 ahead of Tate Carew.
Augusto Akio had the early lead with 84.50 but ran out of time to hit his 540, meaning there was certainly improvement to come.
Carew also failed to time his run to perfection but a big 540 and a huge blunt slide were the highlights as he went in front with 86.37.
Crowd favourite Pedro Barros was putting together a magical second run - starting with an indy air followed by a Stalefish 540. While he fell on a switch 50-50 in the closing seconds, he still managed to post an 81.07.
But it was Carew who got it right on run two, speeding through high-tariff tricks and hitting an alley-oop tail grab 540 before the end to score 91.34.
Reigning champion Jagger Eaton responded in strong fashion, ending a difficult routine with a blunt kickflip for 88.33 and second place.
Bottger had given notice of what he was capable of in run two with a 83.06 to go into fourth, and he nailed his third run with a 'round-the-world' (body varial to fakie) on the buzzer to the delight of the crowd.
The action was not quite over as Cini finally laid down a strong run, ending with a 360 kickflip Stalefish, to take silver.
World champion Gavin Bottger: "I don’t know how I feel right now"
Even after a podium presentation, the sound of the American national anthem playing out and a gold medal around his neck, Bottger was still as shocked as was after hitting his winning score.
“I don’t even know how it feels yet," the teenager shared with Olympics.com after his win. "It hasn’t settled in yet. I don’t know how I feel right now."
Urged on by seeing his best friend Carew lock in a medal, Bottger said he "blacked out" ahead of his final run such was the intensity of his focus.
On the injury that made Sharjah a "what-if" event for him, the American shared that the broken wrist made him hungry to return: “It was a lot of resting, kind of just sitting around a lot but after it was all healed it was kind of just skating as much as I can, trying to feel comfortable on my board again," he said. "It made me like skating more. It was the first time I ever broke a bone."
Carew, like his compatriot, similarly expressed feelings of surprise at his bronze medal.
“Unreal,” the 18-year-old said when asked how it felt to have reached the podium. “Unreal. I’ve been working really hard, but for some reason, it still feels very surreal. But I’m just very grateful that I ended up on the podium and I’m really glad to be on the podium with Gavin and Luigi, both some of my long-time friends and I’m just very excited.”
Having been on something of a rise up through the park ranks Carew said he was now motivated to make it a habit going forwards as the road to Paris 2024 continues.
“It’s crazy because in the last round of qualifying, I was barely in the top 20. And now this time, I’ve been sitting in pre-qualified and I’m skating with some of the greatest people on the planet and I mean, being on the podium is just an unreal feeling and I’ll be chasing this for the rest of the qualifying year for sure.”
Results from WST Rome Park World Championships 2023 Men's Final
- Gavin Bottger (USA) - 94.03
- Luigi Cini (BRA) - 91.90
- Tate Carew (USA) - 91.34
- Jagger Eaton (USA) - 88.33
- Augusto Akio (BRA) - 84.50
- Pedro Barros (BRA) - 81.07
- Nagahara Yuro (JPN) - 78.68
- Keefer Wilson (AUS) - 64.67