Brazil Wins Five Medals at Skateboard and Surf World Cups

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Surfing and skateboarding have everything to be the Team Brazil’s big hits at the Tokyo Olympic Games. If there were any doubts about this, these were wiped out this weekend, when the Surf and Skate Park World Championships were held. On four podiums, Brazil won a gold medal (Ítalo Ferreira), two silver medals (Luiz Francisco and Silvana Lima) and two bronze (Pedro Quintas and Gabriel Medina).

Moreover, popular idols Filipe Toledo and Pedro Barros were also close to the podium. Next weekend, also in São Paulo, there will be a second World Skateboarding Championships, this time in the street.

The gold came at dawn, in Miyazaki, Japan, in the World Surfing Championship. After being late for the competition and making his debut in jeans, Ítalo Ferreira won his first world title. He got a score of 10 and scored 17.77 points. He beat his fellow countryman Gabriel Medina, who finished third with a bronze medal with a score of 14.53.

In the morning, in São Paulo, four Brazilians took part in the men’s final of the World Skate Park. Three of them fought for medals, but the gold was awarded to Hawaiian Heimana Reynolds of the United States, who scored 88 points.

Luiz Francisco, known as Luizinho, scored 85.5 and took the silver medal. Pedro Quintas, with 85 points, won the bronze medal. Pedro Barros, who had won a gold and two silver medals in the other three World Cups, finished sixth with 84.5 points.

Earlier, in the women’s World Cup, Brazil won the silver medal with Silvana Lima. In the World Skate Park, Yndiara Asp, the best Brazilian, was injured in the pubic area and did not compete in São Paulo. Dora Varella was the best Brazilian, in the sixth position. Isadora Pacheco finished seventh. The 13-year-old Japanese Misugu Okamoto took gold.

Skateboarding and surfing will debut at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and are still adapting their international calendar to the Olympic requirements.

In the case of surfing, the WSL (World Surf League) world circuit is completely established, but there was no Olympic standard tournament, with a limited number of athletes per country and the inclusion of surfers from nations with no tradition in the sport.

Organized by the international surfing federation for over half a century, ISA Games has always been an amateur competition – and, therefore, it stopped relying on the sport’s elite when it became professional.

As the ISA is the body that governs Olympic surfing, it has established this year’s competition as a pre-Olympic tournament, a must for anyone intending to go to Tokyo.

The three best in the WSL ranking, which will select the two Brazilians who will travel to Tokyo, were nominated by Brazil. Today, Filipe Toledo (leader) and Gabriel Medina (fourth) lead the ranking. Italo is in sixth place.

When it comes to skateboarding, the calendar is more hectic, but the World Skate Park Championship has existed since 2016, invariably gathering the elite. This São Paulo edition, the first in Brazil, is the tournament where most points are allocated to the Olympic ranking.

Also in São Paulo next week, but in an arena set up in the Anhembi Exhibition Pavilion, is the final stage of the street league circuit, the SLS, which also qualifies as the World Skate Street Championships.

In its last edition, which ran as 2018 but was held this year in Rio, Brazil won silver with Kelvin Hoefler and Letícia Bufoni and bronze with Felipe Gustavo. And Brazil will also feature Rayssa Leal, the 11-year-old Fadinha, who is a candidate for the title.

Source: Folhapress