WST Street World Championship 2023 Japan: Nyjah Huston leads men into Tokyo final, on track to stay perfect in Olympic qualifying
The USA superstar topped the semi-final over Japanese teen phenom Onodera Ginwoo, and is poised to make it four-out-of-four in skateboarding's Paris 2024 qualifying.
Skateboarding
Nyjah Huston maintained his perfect Olympic qualifying record as the USA skater won the men's semi-final at the WST Street World Championships 2023 in Tokyo on Saturday (16 December).
Huston’s second run of 87.04 - best in the 16-man field - set him up nicely for the five tricks during which he hammered out an 89.70 and 90.16 to total 266.90, reaching Sunday's final at Ariake Coliseum.
Huston has won all three Olympic qualifiers he has competed in - twice in Rome last year and this year and in Lausanne, Switzerland, in September.
Trailing Huston was 13-year-old prodigy Onodera Ginwoo (263.94), who emerged as the top Japanese qualifier ahead of Shirai Sora (263.31), Netsuke Kairi (257.13) and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Horigome Yuto (250.83). Horigome made the cut by a single point.
Onodera has a shot at winning his first world championship, not to mention taking a sound step in the qualifying race towards Paris 2024. At the moment, he is second in the Olympic World Skateboarding Rankings behind Shirai.
“I went all out in the semi-final and I’m really happy I went through,” Onodera said. “I wasn’t focusing on the score but I’m glad the score turned out to be so high.
“I had lots of fun making the run and tricks. I just want to land everything and I hope I win.”
The event, which is streamed live on Olympics.com and on the official Olympics mobile app from the semi-final stage, doubles as an Olympic qualifier with crucial ranking points as well as world titles on the line.
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