If ever there was an event which demonstrated the truth about the maxim that it is the ability to endure rather than to inflict which shapes the path to victory, then it was surely this 2026 Women’s Park World Championship.

After a week of qualification which saw almost every one- not only of our finalists, but semifinalists as well- have to adjust, compensate or adapt in the face of one adversity or another, Women’s Finals was a battle of endurance to keep fighting after a long, long week of action.

Yi-Fan Lin was first to drop in and missed her signature Sugarcane for the first time not only here in Paraguay but as far back as she has been on the Tour. On her second run she missed what for her was a pedestrian Kickflip Indy, meaning that she was staring down the barrel of a do or die third run a matter of minutes after kicking off her first ever WST finals, and having seen the other finals debutante Hikari Satake smash her opening run, completely unfazed, in a tale of two debuts.

The ship was stabilised by the three Tour veterans Minna Stess, Naia Laso and Raicca Ventura all banking their first runs, which meant that the Championship could build out from there (a chaotic series of opening runs seems to become contagious, for reasons nobody really understands- but could well be attributed to nerves).

Alongside Yi-Fan, the other skater who was finding it hard to establish a rhythm was Kokona Hiraki, who hurt her hip for the second time in two days during warm-ups and in trying to protect it, gave herself a palm bruise as well. While that may not sound particularly debilitating, every skateboarder knows they are excruciating and remove your first line of defence in breaking a fall.

Kokona looked all but down and out by the time her third run came along but somehow managed to pull a heroic third which was as much as she could hope for. In truth, she was spent by the moment it was time to take her golden run- and even with a first wall rebate, she looked glad to bank her points and regroup to fight another day.

Kokona’s successful third run bumped Minna Stess off the fifth-place spot which would have allowed her a golden run of her own, but Minna was magnanimous about the turn of events, probably comforted in the knowledge that she put in a performance- including a no-practice backside 450- which was as good as she has ever delivered on the WST, and not just today. She had a rock-solid week of skating which speaks to the work she has clearly be putting in.

With positions 3 through 8 all established and two runs left to go, it was a re-run of the shootout in Rome back in June between Sky Brown and Mizuho Hasegawa for top spot. The pair were clear runaways from the start, sitting as they were more than nine points off the pack before Kokona lodged her third run.

Interestingly, none of the top 5 after run 3 availed of the golden run’s first wall rebate rule to gamble on a high-scoring opener, with each instead intending to just polish up their strategised runs.

When Sky couldn’t lock in her timing to deliver the show-stopping Rodeo ender she had planned, Mizuho was champion by default with a run still in hand.

Having won the Vert World Championship earlier on in these World Skate Games, Mizuho could justifiably be pleased with a performance that, while not necessarily her best to date, still saw her battle through from last night’s washout to dominate proceedings at every stage.

In Yi-Fan Lin’s role of opening proceedings as a finals newcomer in the Men’s contest was France’s Tom Martin who to his credit held nothing back with an opening Kickflip Indy Transfer not just over the loveseat but over the platform behind it into a transition that you can’t see until you are already committed in the air. That was as gnarly a straight-line sender as we saw all competition, and he was terribly unlucky to come unstuck right at the end of his second run which would have been a leaderboard buster. Also unlucky- although maybe luck is the wrong word when you are skating right on the edge of control- was Issei Sakurai, who like Tom was on the cusp of delivering a miracle run when he somehow conspired to fall off a Backside Air as time expired.

The same intensity which saw Issei dominate all-comers at WST Rome in June here saw him unable to complete a full run here, and although he was hanging onto the possibility of a golden run in 5th with only Tate Carew to drop in at the end of run 3, he knew he was out of contention when Tate popped out of his only complete run of the finals; Issei was already taking his pads off before Tate’s score was posted up.

It was a testament to how on-edge Men’s finals were that, as MC Marc Churchill pointed out midway through the third run phase, only three skateboarders had actually put in full runs at that stage.

Of those, Gui Khury was insanely impressive, shrugging off his nagging shoulder problems to put down a run which included both a stratospheric 540, his by-now trademark 900 and what I suspect is an NBD 720 over the jumpbox all within 45 seconds. He is absolutely pushing the boundaries of human possibility in skateboarding forward in both Park and Vert right now: sensational.

Edging Gui into third was big Tom Schaar, who took the breathtakingly treacherous opening gambit of Fakie Frontside Ollieing in off the sub-box bench at one-push speed, before thundering around the course with moves like Backside 270 to Lipslides across chasm gaps which only he can. After getting absolutely served up on a Blunt to Kickflip in on the concrete vert wall on run 2, he returned to it again and stomped it for second place on run 3 before very nearly making a combo of Backside Flip Indy then rolling fakie into a Switch Kickflip on the same beast of a feature for his golden run finale. Nearly- but not quite.

All that said, though, the day and indeed the week belonged to Spain’s Egoitz Bijueska- who barely missed a trick the entire time he was in Paraguay. He led from the beginning and was unassailable at the end, transferring the Switch McTwist he premiered at Best Trick in Vert earlier this World Skate Games to become his run-ender in Park.

Every single entrant into Men’s finals at the 2026 World Championship has greatness within them: it was by Mister Churchill’s estimation the greatest display he has seen on the WST.

Egoitz, however, has no weaknesses in his game whatsoever. Let us recognise greatness when it moves amongst us: that boy is fantastic in every facet and every dimension of transition skateboarding.

Back to back World Champion, World Skateboarding Ranking leader by a country mile- and he is all of fifteen years old.

Superb, superb, superb: catch him, if you can.