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Apart 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 aside from what occurred in a single sport, and maybe surprisingly that was one which made its debut at these video games which have been held a yr later than deliberate resulting from the worldwide pandemic.
Because the title of this put up reveals, that sport is in fact skateboarding. Why I ended up watching a lot Olympic skateboarding I don’t know! It might stem from my very own background as a skateboarder within the late 80s and early 90s or possibly it was simply because Japanese TV simply occurred to be displaying 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 courtroom or elsewhere within the complicated. It proved to be the previous however there was definitely no hint of the blue tennis courtroom, the web or the umpire’s chair because it was fully lined within the numerous ramps, handrails and different such obstacles which the skaters use.
All is sort of at this explicit Coliseum!
The aforementioned Ariake Coliseum is only a brief stroll from Ariake-tennis-no-mori station in Koto-ku and throughout the street 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 pal 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 will have been very simple to suppose that nothing was happening on this explicit day.
Simply embarassing! An older man attempting to pose in a cool approach!
The rationale Japanese TV confirmed a lot skateboarding was in all probability as a result of Japan have been the strongest nation general at this sport. I can recall seeing the likes of Yuto Horigome (he gained gold within the males’s avenue), Funa Nakayama (bronze within the girls’s avenue), Sakura Yosozumi (gold within the girls’s park) and Momiji Nishiya who was memorable for just a few causes; she gained the ladies’s avenue gold, was solely 13 then and had the identical identify as our beloved household canine who went to heaven in 2019.
The ladies’s (women might be extra apt given how younger lots of them are!) quarter finals have 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 methods, grinds, slides and aerial turns with the perfect 16 qualifying for the next days semi-final the place it will then be whittled down to simply eight folks earlier than Sunday’s last.
My predominant curiosity have been the three respective medal winners from Tokyo 2020; Momiji Nishiya, Rayssa Leal (Brazil) and Funa Nakayama. Together with just a few different folks of word from Australia and Japan it was truly simpler than anticipated to note the distinction in school between a few of the skate boarders as they labored their magic.
A good few rivals have been round us within the stands earlier than or after their runs however we simply weren’t too accustomed to 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 women referred to as Liz Akama and wished to no less than be capable of say congratulations or onerous luck and so forth earlier than asking for a photograph. Nonetheless, I wasn’t even certain if she had certified for the semi finals or not so determined to not disturb her. Additionally, possibly I’m overthinking it nevertheless it does appear a bit bizarre to ask for a selfie with a woman who I’m 3 times the age of! As a substitute, I simply took one in all myself!
This could’ve been a selfie with one of many rivals!
Unaware of the schedule beforehand, I hoped that the boys’s competitors would observe quickly after however sadly there was a near-two hour look ahead to that to begin.
There have been the 45 minute observe classes so no less than I acquired to see all of them in some form of motion earlier than I needed to depart simply after 4:00 pm resulting from household commitments.
My accomplice in crime for this occasion was Mostyn who’s older than me but in addition acquired into the game on the final Olympics. We have been each very aware of being a lot older than the common particular person in attendance forward of the occasion nevertheless it turned out that there have been fairly just a few different older folks there. Regardless of feeling a bit 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 house the gold medals within the girls’s and males’s competitors.
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