*LAUSANNE, Switzerland /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Full podium sweep in Switzerland! Monster Energy congratulates its skateboarding team (led by Nyjah Huston) on claiming the top three spots in Men’s Skateboard Street in the 2023 World Skateboarding Tour competition in Lausanne.
In the official ‘Road to Paris 2024’ qualifier event for the upcoming summer Olympics, 28-year-old Huston from Laguna Beach, California, claimed the top spot with a fully dialed-in performance. Huston was joined on the podium by 16-year-old Monster Army recruit Toa Sasaki from Mie, Japan, in second place. Rounding out the podium sweep, 22-year-old Giovanni Vianna from Santo Andre, Brazil, took third place with a buzzer-beating final trick.
From September 9 to 16, the 2023 World Skateboarding Tour (WST) contest attracted the world’s best street skateboarders to the Beaulieu District in the city of Lausanne by Lake Geneva. Surrounded by a music and art festival, the competition offered a chance to score prize money and ranking points for Olympic qualification.
In the Men’s Skateboard Street event, more than 100 riders battled for days to break into the list of top eight finalists. According to official Olympic rules, riders built their scores based on the best of two Run scores plus the two top-scoring Best Trick attempts.
Heading into the final, Nyjah Huston came in as a podium threat after winning the previous WST contest in Rome. Back to his winning ways, the Team USA rider emerged from Friday’s grueling Semi-Final as the top qualifier.
Maintaining his momentum, Huston put down a perfect second run featuring crooked grind the ledge into bank, gap kickflip backside lipslide the pyramid rail, 360 kickflip the bump, backside 180 nosegrind the Euro Gap ledge, backside tailslide the ledge to bank, gap backside noseblunt slide the pyramid rail, switch frontside kickflip the bump, kickflip frontside boardslide the step-up rail and Half Cab backside Smith grind fakie the big rail for 90.00 points and a strong foundation for a high score.
When the contest moved into Best Trick attempts, Huston followed up with technical tricks above the 90-point benchmark. A nollie heelflip backside lipslide (90.11 points) and switch frontside heelflip tailslide on the big rail (92.71 points) cemented Huston in first place. A technical frontside nollie heelflip noseblunt slide (93.23 points) sealed the win with a total score of 275.94 points; more than 5 points ahead of the next competitor.
“It’s a good one! Feels great to go out there and not only land hard tricks but also feel solid on your board. I’m so stoked!” said Monster Energy’s Huston upon taking first place at the World Skate Tour Lausanne.
Speaking on the high level of international competition, Huston said: “I think it’s always a friendly battle with us skaters out there, no matter what country you’re from.”
A six-time street skateboarding world champion, Nyjah Huston represented the United States at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Known as the winningest street skateboarder of all time, he is currently the only athlete ever to win X Games gold medals on five continents.
Second place in Saturday’s Men’s Street final went to a young rookie. Undeterred by the A-list competitors, 16-year-old Monster Army recruit Toa Sasaki from Mie, Japan, rose all the way to second place in a showcase of technical skill and consistency.
In his highest-scoring run, Sasaki landed backside nose blunt slide the big rail, 360 kickflip the bump, frontside kickflip the quarterpipe, backside tailslide the Euro Gap ledge, frontside blunt the quarterpipe, huge backside 360 ollie the pyramid to flat, nollie heelflip the bump and a technical bigger flip frontside boardslide the big rail for 89.66 points.
Heading into Best Trick, Sasaki posted bigger flip frontside boardslide the big rail (85.14 points) and a never-landed-in-competition nollie frontside 180 switch Smith grind 180 out the rail for 90.88 points. Finishing his outstanding performance, the young rookie put down a perfect Caballerial noseblunt slide fakie the big rail for 89.99 points and a total score of 270.53 points securing second place. Definitely keep an eye on this kid!
Bringing the podium sweep full circle, 22-year-old Giovanni Vianna from Santo Andre, Brazil, took third place in a dramatic showdown to the final trick. Vianna’s best run included fakie hurricane grind revert the big rail, backside bluntslide the flat rail, nollie bigspin backside lipslide fakie the Euro Gap ledge, Half Cab frontside Smith grind the big rail, nollie frontside crooked the Hubba ledge, heelflip frontside boardslide the rail, and Caballerial frontside noseslide fakie the big rail for 87.29 points.
In Best Trick, Vianna secured a strong start by posting a previously unseen in-competition move; frontside Half Cab backside Smith grind the big rail for 91.87 points. But when his next two attempts misfired, the Brazilian found himself dropped to eighth place, with everything riding on his final attempt. Clutching a perfect trick when it counted, Vianna put down a Caballerial backside noseblunt slide fakie the big rail for 88.9 points and a total score of 268.06 points claiming third place.
Also putting on a strong performance all weekend, French team rider Aurelien Giraud stoked the crowd with powerful tricks, including gap to frontside bluntslide the pyramid rail and backside 360 ollie the pyramid to flat. Although he did not get the tricks he wanted in the final, he brought the crowd to its feet with a huge hardflip late 180 over the pyramid rail all the way to flat and walked away with seventh place and crucial points for Paris 2024.
Slovakian team rider Richard Tury showcased his unique bag of tricks featuring heelflip bigspin boardslide and heelflip frontside tailslide fakie the big rail, as well as heelflip noseslide the Hubba for eighth place.
Next up, stay tuned when the 2023 World Skateboarding Tour (WST) continues with qualifiers in the Skateboard Park discipline in Rome, Italy, from October 1-8, 2023.
For more on Nyjah Huston, Toa Sasaki, Giovanni Vianna, and the Monster Energy skateboarding team visit http://www.monsterenergy.com. Follow Monster Energy on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok for exclusive updates as the action sports season continues.
source: Cision PRWeb
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