Today’s Skateboarding Street and Park World Championships took place in São Paulo against a backdrop of changing weather patterns that vacillated between piercing sunshine and sporadic, intense downpours, which meant for a lot of stoppages throughout the action.

Women’s Street saw the best of the weather, taking place in an azure Brazilian morning which saw four Japanese skateboarders, two Chinese and a single European aiming to unseat reigning World Champion and national icon Rayssa Leal.

Number one WSR-ranked Ibuki Matsumoto led from her first of two 45-second runs and was already ten point clear of the field going into the Best Trick section, effectively making the remainder of the contest a battle for second place. That position would go to the rapidly-improving Nanami Onishi, who only debuted on the World Skateboarding Tour in March 2024 and made her first finals last November in Kitakyushu, Japan.

Rayssa was edged out of third place by the tactically-astute Paris Olympic gold medallist Coco Yoshizawa, who duplicated Rayssa’s Kickflip Frontside Boardslide for Best Trick having calculated that her marginally superior Run score would give her the edge- and so it proved. 

Rayssa had one last chance to make it back into the top 3 but hyperextended her knee on her final attempt, and had to be helped from the Field Of Play even as the capacity audience chanted her name.

Men’s Street was interrupted by two biblical downpours (and thanks to our online audience for staying with us during the interludes) but produced a classic shootout regardless. Having four Japanese contenders in the final including defending World Champion Toa Sasaki all but guaranteed fireworks, and it is a testament to the professionalism of all these guys that the tempo was at full revs right from the restart.

France's Max Berguin and Japan's mercurial Daiki Ikeda both commendably made it into their first finals, and the Frenchman in particular gave very good account of himself with Noseslide Nollieflip and much more on lock. France has a new contender, there.

Slovakia’s Richard Tury is somehow better than ever aged 32, and did himself proud against a field containing some of the most cutting-edge talents in the game today.

The biggest ‘what-if’ of the contest however was local Wallace Gabriel, who slipped out on the last trick of his killer last run which would have kept him right in the podium mix. Nevertheless, he has once again demonstrated to himself and the world that he can hang at elite pro level, with style to spare on top.

The best result from a first-time finalist here however was Peru’s Angelo Caro who, after three years of trying, managed to make it all gel and came a powerful and deserving second place.

Leading throughout was defending champion Toa Sasaki, who made three full runs- which is unheard of- and held off all comers with a Caballerial Fakie Nosegrind as his first Best Trick which gave him an unassailable lead regardless of what Best Trick magic would follow.

At almost the same time, Men’s Park was developing into a Classico with the new(ish) Golden Run format producing another ultra-climax as Ostia 2025 World Cup winner and WSR number one-ranked Egoitz Bijueska, who spent last night being checked out in hospital for a suspected concussion, returned to the fray and led at the end of round three.

Brazilian crowd favourite Kalani Konig then stole his lead with the greatest run of his life in the bonus round, before the Spanish teenager fought back with an outrageously creative and skilful last run of the night to reclaim the lead and snatch the World Champion title, in what was the best duel which Men’s Park on the WST has thrown up to date.

Unreal crowd scenes.

The climax of this giant event, Women’s Park, ripped up the anticipated order by seeing first appearances from USA’s Lillian Erickson, France’s Nana Taboulet and Spain’s Julia Benedetti who recovered from an almighty tumble on the rainbow rail to claim he first finals berth.

Unfortunately- and possibly inevitably- proceedings would succumb to the weather which had been held at bay with prayers and luck as long as could realistically have been expected given the angry clouds.

Final standings had to be decided on results at that halfway point in proceedings.

While it was not an ideal competitive scenario, everybody had two full runs in which to express themselves- and by that juncture Great Britain’s unflappable Sky Brown was comfortably out in front ahead of the high-blasting Japanese charger Mizuho Hasegawa.

In third came an in-form performance from USA’s Minna Stess, who returned to the WST podium for the first time since Italy back in 2023 with a fluid and well-crafted run, ending in a high-risk Kickflip Indy in the deep end.

We can only conclude our reportage from an epic week in Brazil by thanking sincerely and deeply all our Brazilian friends old and new for their hard work and hospitality, in what we hope will be the first of many World Skateboarding Tour returns to this vital and vitally important skateboarding nation.

Muito obrigado!