By Hiroki Noda,
Fifteen-year-old Japanese skateboarder Hinano Kusaki executed all of her tricks, including flips and mid-air spins, to capture the women's park gold medal at the Asian Games on Monday.
Her victory had already been guaranteed before she had the last run of the eight-person final, as no other skater could beat her second-run score of 87.78 points through three runs at Qiantang Roller Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China.
Kusaki then went even better with 88.87 in her third run.
"I'm glad I made all the tricks," Kusaki said. "I'll be very happy if I can show the joy of skateboarding through my runs."
"Our skateboarding family encourages each other. We feel happy for other skaters' great tricks. If we can't do something, we talk to find out how we can do it."
Chinese athletes took the silver and bronze, with Li Yujuan scoring 85.48 and Mao Jiasi 80.46.
A best-of-three, 45-second-per-run format was used.
"When the Chinese girl (Li) made a 540, her score went up by more than 10 points, so I told myself that I would win this competition by landing a 540," Kusaki said of the spin trick with one and a half full rotations.
Mei Sugawara, Japan's other finalist, settled for fifth with 73.85.
The final featured skateboarders aged between 9 and 20. Nine-year-old Mazel Paris Alegado of the Philippines finished seventh.
"It was really fun. I'm really proud that I got here," Alegado said. "My dream is to be a pro skater. I would love to go to the Olympics."
Asked what her friends think of her, Alegado said, "They think I'm really cool."
The men's park gold medal went to China's Chen Ye, who scored 84.41 in his second run, followed by Japan's Yuro Nagahara (84.00) and Kensuke Sasaoka (83.66).
The 15-year-old Chen, who finished fourth in the previous day's qualification round, said he began training with the national team just two months before the Asian Games, having previously trained under his father.
Asked about his chances of success at next year's Paris Olympics, Chen said, "I think I need to improve my height and speed, as they're not quite there yet."
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