Heavy rain delayed the World Skate Championship finals in São Paulo by more than two hours on Sunday evening, but the wait only heightened the drama at Parque Cândido Portinari. When the men’s park final finally ran, 18-year-old Brazilian Kalani Konig came within a single run of a world title, ultimately finishing second behind Spain’s Egoitz Bijueska — a 15-year-old prodigy who is already ranked first in the world.
Konig, from Santa Catarina in southern Brazil, had led the competition after his fourth and final run, scoring 94.80 to the crowd’s delight and briefly displacing Bijueska at the top of the leaderboard. The Spaniard, going last, answered with a run of 95.83 — matching the highest score in championship history — to take gold. American Tom Schaar completed the podium in third.
A Final Shaped by Rain and Resilience
The format gave each of the eight finalists three runs of 40 seconds each. The top five then advanced to a single bonus fourth run — the one that ultimately decided everything. Konig had moved into second place after the main rounds with a score of 91.66, behind Bijueska’s 92.28 and just ahead of Schaar’s 90.51. His fourth-run score of 94.80 was the best of the night until the Spaniard’s closing effort.
Konig’s compatriot Luigi Cini, who had led the semi-finals the previous day and entered as a co-favorite, could not replicate his form in the final. He fell on all three of his runs, including once with just two seconds remaining in his second attempt, and finished sixth with 68.35 — outside the top five and unable to take the bonus run. The result was a difficult end to the evening for one of Brazil’s most celebrated park skaters, a Paris 2024 Olympic finalist.
Japan Sweeps Street, Rayssa Comes Up Short
Earlier in the day, before the rains arrived, Rayssa Leal competed in the women’s street final and placed fourth, narrowly missing the podium in a competition dominated by Japan. The Japanese sweep of that event was total: Ibuki Matsumoto took gold, Nanami Onishi silver, and Coco Yoshizawa bronze — three athletes from the same country occupying every step of the podium. In the men’s street final — also delayed but completed Sunday evening — Japan’s Toa Sasaki won gold, while Peru’s Angelo Caro earned a notable silver, a strong result for South American skateboarding on home soil. Japan’s Sora Shirai took bronze. Brazil’s Wallace Gabriel finished fifth.
Eyes on Los Angeles
For Konig, the silver medal carries significance well beyond the podium. The result adds 64,000 points to his Olympic qualification ranking and positions him as one of the strongest Brazilian contenders for a spot in park skating at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. “It’s a big dream of mine to compete at the Olympics and be Olympic champion,” he said after the final. “I’ve never had a result this good before — it gives me a lot more confidence.” Konig, whose mother is a yoga instructor and has helped him develop a reputation for calm under pressure, said he intends to pursue the Olympic cycle fully. The next qualifying events are a World Cup in Rome and another World Championship in Asunción later this year, both of which will count directly toward LA 2028 qualification points.
This is part of The Rio Times’ daily coverage of Latin American news and Latin American financial news.
For more context, read Brazil’s Morning Call and the Chile IPSA report.
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