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Aside from attending the observe biking for a few days on the ill-fated Tokyo 2020 Olympics I actually can’t keep in mind an excessive amount of else about these video games other than what occurred in a single sport, and maybe surprisingly that was one which made its debut at these video games which had been held a yr later than deliberate because of the worldwide pandemic.
Because the title of this submit reveals, that sport is after all skateboarding. Why I ended up watching a lot Olympic skateboarding I don’t know! It could stem from my very own background as a skateboarder within the late 80s and early 90s or perhaps it was simply because Japanese TV simply occurred to be exhibiting it a good bit at a time of day that was handy for me!
After I booked the tickets final month I did marvel if this World Avenue Championship at Ariake Coliseum can be held on the primary court docket or elsewhere within the advanced. It proved to be the previous however there was actually no hint of the blue tennis court docket, the web or the umpire’s chair because it was utterly coated within the numerous ramps, handrails and different such obstacles which the skaters use.
All is kind of at this explicit Coliseum!
The aforementioned Ariake Coliseum is only a quick stroll from Ariake-tennis-no-mori station in Koto-ku and throughout the highway from Tokyo Backyard Theater the place my spouse and I noticed Noel Gallagher’s Excessive Flying Birds in live performance a fortnight earlier. The Coliseum itself was a spot I watched tennis itself again in September on the Toray Pan Pacific Open and naturally I needed to level out to my buddy the precise spot the place I met British tennis participant Harriet Dart. In distinction, there have been only a few folks round this time and it might have been very straightforward to suppose that nothing was going down on this explicit day.
Simply embarassing! An older man attempting to pose in a cool approach!
The explanation Japanese TV confirmed a lot skateboarding was in all probability as a result of Japan had been the strongest nation general at this sport. I can recall seeing the likes of Yuto Horigome (he gained gold within the males’s road), Funa Nakayama (bronze within the girls’s road), Sakura Yosozumi (gold within the girls’s park) and Momiji Nishiya who was memorable for a number of causes; she gained the ladies’s road gold, was solely 13 then and had the identical title as our beloved household canine who went to heaven in 2019.
The ladies’s (ladies might be extra apt given how younger a lot of them are!) quarter finals had been up first and we took our seats simply a short while earlier than the 4 heats started.
The rivals had two runs of 45 seconds every to carry out their numerous tips, grinds, slides and aerial turns with one of the best 16 qualifying for the next days semi-final the place it might then be whittled down to only eight folks earlier than Sunday’s last.
My important curiosity had been the three respective medal winners from Tokyo 2020; Momiji Nishiya, Rayssa Leal (Brazil) and Funa Nakayama. Together with a number of different folks of observe from Australia and Japan it was truly simpler than anticipated to note the distinction at school between a few of the skate boarders as they labored their magic.
A good few rivals had been round us within the stands earlier than or after their runs however we simply weren’t too acquainted with them, and didn’t need to simply ask for an autograph or selfie with somebody within the hope that they’re notable! I did recognise one of many Japanese ladies known as Liz Akama and needed to at the very least be capable of say congratulations or exhausting luck and so forth earlier than asking for a photograph. Nonetheless, I wasn’t even positive if she had certified for the semi finals or not so determined to not disturb her. Additionally, perhaps I’m overthinking it but it surely does appear a bit bizarre to ask for a selfie with a lady who I’m thrice the age of! As a substitute, I simply took one among myself!
This could’ve been a selfie with one of many rivals!
Unaware of the schedule beforehand, I hoped that the lads’s competitors would observe quickly after however sadly there was a near-two hour anticipate that to start out.
There have been the 45 minute observe periods so at the very least I bought to see all of them in some type of motion earlier than I needed to depart simply after 4:00 pm because of household commitments.
My companion in crime for this occasion was Mostyn who’s older than me but additionally bought into the game on the final Olympics. We had been each very acutely aware of being a lot older than the common particular person in attendance forward of the occasion but it surely turned out that there have been fairly a number of different older folks there. Regardless of feeling somewhat misplaced we each loved it and even agreed to attend once more when (if?) this occasion returns to Tokyo.
What a pair of wallies!
Because it was, Mostyn was again on the occasion simply two days later for the finals day which noticed a double gold for Japan as Yumeka Oda and Sora Shirai took dwelling the gold medals within the girls’s and males’s competitors.
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