Skateboarding
Portugal's most decorated skateboarder Gustavo Ribeiro is down to the last 44 going forward to Phase 2 of qualification after grabbing second place in Dubai.
Portugal's Gustavo Ribeiro secured his progress to the final phase of qualification for what will be the biggest skateboard contest of all time this summer in Paris, France.
An impressive second place at the last stop on this cycle of World Skateboarding Tour in Dubai comfortably positions the 22-year-old technician from Lisbon within the top 44 going through to a two-leg elimination phase held in Shanghai, China, and Budapest, Hungary, over the coming months.
Although he will doubtless be a little disappointed to have missed out on outright victory by the tiniest of margins – a mere 0.04 points behind Japan's Kairi Netsuke – his first run was the highest-scoring of the Men's Finals. That, combined with two Best Tricks (360 Flip Nosegrind, Biggerflip Frontside Boardslide) on attempts two and three respectively, were too great of a feat for a spirited Sora Shirai comeback and the Japanese world champion had to settle for third.
Dubai marked a third podium position of the six-stop World Skateboarding Tour which has made landfall in Italy, Japan, Switzerland and the UAE, meaning that Ribeiro ends the tour as the highest-placed European competitor in Men’s Street Skateboarding, having moved up into third in the OWSR rankings.
Looking sharper and more motivated than ever, the timing really couldn't be better. Ribeiro demonstrated this when he came out swinging at this most unanticipated of finals, which featured experienced Canadian duo Ryan Decenzo and Matt Berger, Slovakian stalwart Riso Tury and four Japanese rippers that included the other podium finishers, as well as Ginwoo Onodera and Yukito Aoki.
A six-week break in the schedule ahead of Shanghai will give all involved an opportunity to revisit strategies based upon what unfolded at a nerve-shredding World Skateboarding Tour finale, which involved an original field of 127 entrants getting whittled down to eight. Many established names fell by the wayside even by the quarter-final stage.
Ribeiro will be delighted to be progressing comfortably. And with the flattening of current scores to represent just one third of the final standings alongside Shanghai and Budapest, the differences between the top three positions becomes so small as to be potentially negligible.
Once again, it all becomes wide open – and as WST Dubai proved many times over, anything can happen in skateboarding. Watch this space as we roll toward summer.
Watch World Skateboarding Tour Dubai Street 2024 in full below:
Danny León skates to victory at WST Dubai Park 2024
Spain’s Danny León emphatically won the final World Skateboarding Tour stop in the United Arab Emirates after holding off three rounds of attacks from seven competitors on Dubai’s waterfront, as he logged the only 90-plus score of the men's event.
WST Dubai was the final World Skateboarding Tour stop that determines which 44 skateboarders proceed towards the world’s biggest stage later this year. Having begun in the UAE last year, it has also made its way to Argentina and Italy before returning to the place where it began for a final make-or-break showdown.
And after an incredible night of action in Dubai, several factors made León's victory all the more remarkable. Perhaps the most important of all was the sheer weight of numbers. Unlike invitational contests, World Skateboarding Tour has an open qualification system, meaning that any nation is free to send their chosen skateboarders to battle through the four consecutive eliminator rounds.
There's no deference shown by the entrants to established names and upsets are not only possible, but commonplace. So much so that some famous pros decline to take part, fearing humiliation by a hungry unknown.
A total of 103 skateboarders representing 39 nations entered WST Dubai. No European had ever won a WST Dubai Park stop before, with the event in the UAE traditionally dominated by Brazilians, who had been on every podium and were victorious in the last two legs.
However, the 29-year-old skateboarder from Mostoles has been on a remarkable trajectory over the past year, having also claimed victory at Red Bull Bowl Rippers in 2023.
In his first WST finals appearance, León, who had been lying in 16th on the OWSR rankings going into the showdown in Dubai’s luxurious harbour, came out swinging on his first of three runs.
Setting the tempo with his soaring signature Method Air, he attacked every obstacle on the custom-designed California Skateparks course, including not one but two tricks on the treacherous 'rainbow rail' that most skaters avoided.
Being second in the running order, this gave his competitors from USA, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Italy and Brazil ample opportunity to try and better his benchmark. But try as they might, nobody else could broach the 90-point mark.
With the three places below his final standing, each less than a single full point off his winning score, a tense but well-deserved victory was his in what will surely be a career highlight for him thus far.
Watch a full replay of the Park Final in the video below:
