Nanjing is proudly playing host to the 2018 World Skateboarding Championships, which began on 29 October and will end on 3 November.
Kicking off with the Woman’s competition, 23 ladies who had qualified for the semi finals of the Park Skateboarding World Championships competed for the top position. In first place came 16-year-old Japanese professional skateboarder, Sakura Yosozumi, who won US$30,000; in second place was 18-year-old Japanese skateboarder, Kisa Nakamura, and in third place stood Australian talent, Poppy Star.
“I’m so excited! I won the first world skate women’s park skateboarding championship! I would like to thank the organisers of this stuff, sponsors, my family, fans, support from Japan and all are thanks to those who are involved with me”, Yosozumi commented on social media.
Sporting beautiful blue skies in what is the city’s finest season of the year, the event has yet to host the Men’s Competition and the Men’s “Rain Day”.
World Skate and local Nanjing organisers have teamed up to open the Crownboard indoor training facility (Longjiang Skatepark), in order to accommodate practicing skaters, according to World Skate.
126 skaters from 27 countries on five continents (78 men and 48 women) have also gathered at the newly-built, world-class Nanjing Wetland Park skatepark, near the Olympic stadium, that which was in 2014 home to the Youth Olympic Games SportsLab.
This week’s event is being broadcast via a live webcast on worldskate.tv which started with the women’s qualifying on 31 October.
“Sincere thanks go to Migu, Migu Video, Migu Comic, Onepure and Ronhill for their support for the competition. MIGU was established by China Mobile as a specialised subsidiary targeting the Internet space and [is] responsible for the integration of digital content products’ supply, operation and service,” World Skate has announced on their website.
Growing fast in popularity across China, the once looked-down-upon skateboarding is now an acceptable and desirable sport amongst Chinese youths. Parks and open spaces in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing and many other cities are now home to skating enthusiasts, groups and pro practicers.
In addition to its growing popularity in China, as of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games, Skateboarding, along with baseball, karate, sports climbing and surfing will officially become Olympic sports.
