By Sean Miyaguchi,
Olympic men's champion Yuto Horigome outdueled Japanese compatriot Daiki Ikeda and American superstar Nyjah Huston to win the inaugural Tokyo round of the Street League Skateboarding circuit Saturday at Ariake Arena.
Japan narrowly missed out on a men's and women's title sweep in the second SLS event of the season and first in Asia, with fellow Olympic champion Momiji Nishiya earlier finishing runner-up to Australian Chloe Covell in a closely contested women's final.
Competing just a short distance from where he became the first men's Olympic street skateboarding gold medalist in 2021, the 24-year-old Horigome put on a spectacular show for the appreciative home crowd to win the final with a total of 37.2, beating runner-up Ikeda by 3.2 points.
The biggest name on the circuit, 28-year-old Huston, finished third after securing a place in the final with his last trick of the knockout round.
"To win the first-ever Street League competition in Japan is something I'm really happy about," Horigome said.
Performing in front of family and friends in his native Koto Ward in central Tokyo, Horigome earned the highest score of the individual trick section in the final with a signature maneuver named after him.
Combining a rail slide on the back side of his board with 270-degree spins on both mount and dismount, the nollie backside 270 nose slide 270 out -- dubbed the "Yutornado" -- received 9.5 points from the judges and a huge cheer from the audience.
"It felt like everything really fit together with that trick," Horigome said.
Despite Horigome's stellar showing, the 17-year-old Ikeda had a chance to move into first place with his final trick but was unable to land it.
"I didn't think I could get second place," Ikeda said. "I was just happy to be in the final."
In the women's final, 13-year-old Covell moved ahead of Nishiya, 15, with her last trick, scoring 9.0 to total 32.5 and beat the Olympic champion by just 1.3 points. Roos Zwetsloot of the Netherlands finished third.
The Australian, who became the youngest X Games street winner last month in California, said she was firmly focused on next summer's Paris Olympics.
"I'm just going to keep practicing as hard as I can, getting new tricks down and mastering the ones I'm learning at the moment," she said. "It will be great if I do qualify (for the Olympics)."
Related coverage:
Skateboarding: Akama wins women's Olympic q'fier, Shirai 2nd in men's
X Games: Tokyo Games runner-up Hiraki wins 1st women's park gold
