MARGIELYN Arda Didal’s glaring weakness in the tricks department was exposed yesterday as she struggled to finish seventh overall with a score of 7.52 points in the Olympic women’s street skateboarding event at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in downtown Tokyo.
Competing under the hot summer sun in the Japanese capital, Didal suffered a meltdown, flubbing four of five tries in the tricks department, collecting 2.33 and 2.22 in succession in her first two runs plus 2.97 points in her second try.
On her seventh and last attempt — the fifth in the trick stage — the 2018 Asian Games gold medalist failed to execute properly, landing on her butt, although she gamely waved with both arms to the crowd, smiling as she ended her Olympic debut.
The top four scores combined in the seven-round series of the skaters counted as their overall output.
Didal duplicated her performance in the heats, although with a better score of 12.02 points, where she finished seventh overall to reach the eight-man finals of the sport making its debut in the global sports showcase.
The gold was won in thrilling fashion by precocious hometown bet Nishiya Momiji, 13, who came from behind to clinch the gold medal with 15.266 points, relegating Brazilian Rayssa Leal, the pre-tournament pick, to the silver (14.64) while compatriot Funa Nakayama took the bronze (14.49).
The silver medalist in the World Skate Street championship in Italy last month, Momiji, who trailed Leal with two rounds to go, nailed the win with back-to-back scores of 4.66 and 3.43, respectively, in the sixth and seventh rounds, while the Brazilian crashed on her last try.
With Japanese Yuto Horigome also clinching the gold in the men’s street skateboarding event last Sunday, the hosts have swept two of the four golds disputed so far in the exciting and dynamic millennial discipline.
Seeing action in the second heat of the qualifiers, Didal tallied 2.77 points in her second run plus 3.01, 3.02 and 3.22 in the tricks department, ominously going scoreless in the second and fourth tries.
Ranking as high as fifth after the first three heats, she was pulled down to seventh as the results of the fourth and final heat came in.
Nakayama and Momiji finished 1-2 in the qualifiers with 15.77 and 15.40 points respectively, while Leal was third with 14.91 points.
Among the casualties were popular Brazilian Leticia Bufoni, a five-time Summer X Games champion ranked No. 4 in the world, who placed ninth (10.91) while compatriot and world top-ranked Pamela Rosa was behind her in 10th spot (10.06) in the qualifiers.
