<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the things which never fails to impress at international skate contests is when the Brazilians turn up en-masse, and you realise what they have been up to all day, every day, down there.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You begin to understand why American pro’s used to dread the arrival of the Brazilians in competitive skateboarding back in the 1990’s: they move as a unit, they don’t care who your sponsors are, and they feed off the energy of the crowd in away which only a couple of individual others do. Since they have their own domestic events circuit which the rest of the world tends to overlook, it is only when they show up outside of Brazil that you go ‘O-K…’.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So it was, here, in Rome. It was fantastic to see <strong>Italo Penarrubia</strong> and <strong>Rony Gomes</strong> holding it down against the young breed coming through during qualifiers yesterday, and although Italo didn’t make the cut, Rony made today’s finals- in which Brazil held seven of sixteen possible finalist spots, close to double the nearest national representation (USA with four). Rony's final Best Trick was a backside 360 varial flip indy- over a ten-foot channel. Rrrright.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Soya Inomata</strong> progressed to the finals as the sole Japanese representative in Men’s division, joining three Brazilians and four Americans in what is probably a fair representation of what the lie of the land is in Vert skating globally today.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Women’s was a slightly more international affair, with three Brazilians, three Australians, two Japanese and one German as the sole European representative.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Given that Vert ramps can be built indoors anywhere in the world, the fact that <strong>Lilly Stoephasius</strong> was the only European in the finals tells a story not just of her own verve, but where that continent could perhaps play catch-up in the vertical arena.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She did herself and her entire continent proud by coming in a solid fourth here this evening.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">How high was the standard? Well, if I tell you that yesterday New Zealand’s <strong>CJ Hawker </strong>made three 540’s, two flip tricks and a couple of varials in a thirty-second run and still didn’t make his cut, then you have an idea of how far things have come in the last few years. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today in the finals we saw 900’s in runs becoming an actual thing. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That was a trick which once saw people who landed it being carried off shoulder-high in a conga line, and now is becoming frighteningly close to a staple. How’s that for progression?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the subject of progression: while you may not be surprised by Australia’s <strong>Arisa Trew</strong> becoming the 2024 Women’s Vert World Champion- she is the Paris 2024 Olympic Park gold medallist, after all- her victory was far from a foregone conclusion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In fact, she was trailing Japanese blaster <strong>Mizuho Hasegawa</strong> coming out of the Run section, and needed a switch McTwist (< read that back) to take top spot. She nearly made a 720, too. Fantastic.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rounding out the Women’s Vert podium was Mizuho’s Japanese compatriot <strong>Asahi Kaihara</strong>, who was both solid and inventive. Women’s vertical skateboarding is really something to behold these days; as Renton Millar observed on the mic- we’re going to where we’ve never been before. He’s not wrong.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Men’s Finals took place straight after Women’s, and during a glorious Roman sunset. We have waxed lyrical about Rome as a location for events before, but the light falls in the evening here in this city in a particularly gorgeous way which you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in the world. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was against this backdrop a battle royale materialised, which saw <strong>Gui Khury </strong>electrify from the get-go right down to his final Best Trick attempt, which was-I kid you not- a kickflip 900. A deserved first place, and a talent which needs to be seen to believed, genuinely.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just behind him was his inventive and skate-smart countryman <strong>Augusto Akio</strong>, who despite not having those telephone-number rotations in his arsenal, can do things nobody else can- like frontside feeblegrind to pop out over a 10-foot channel- and nearly did a frontside nosegrind revert off the floating coping 16 feet off the ground. Balance like a cat, that fellow has.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In third came the rootsy <strong>Collin Graham</strong>, who qualified in 8th but boxed clever with a great opening run and then made an Elguerial over that chasm of a channel during Best Trick- which, apart from talent, takes an unbelievable amount of commitment. Great to see that mix at this level.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anyone who saw the whole thing transpire will agree it was a wild, wild show for all concerned- as well as for our global broadcast audience online. If there is a better human spectacle than Vert skateboarding overlooking Rome, then I personally can’t think of what that might be, right now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Congratulations to our new World Champions and thank you to all sixty-plus skateboarders, and all the fans who made this event so magic. And it was.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The World Skate Games 2024 continues: next up are the <a href="https://www.boardriding.com/events/street-world-championship-2024" target="_blank">WST Street World Championships</a> in just seven short days’ time!</div>