Brazil will have three representatives in the final of skate park men’s, the last event of the sport at the Paris Olympic Games. In the qualifying rounds held in the morning, Pedro Barros, Augusto Akio and Luigi Cini secured enough points to be among the eight athletes who advanced to the final. The medal competition will take place today, starting at 12:30 p.m., Brasília time.
Pedro Barros and Augusto Akio participated in the third round of qualifying. In the first round, both achieved good scores, falling within the qualifying zone for the final. Silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, Pedro Barros received 89.24. And Augusto, who is participating in the first Games of his career, obtained 88.79. On the second lap, Pedro fell and did not finish, receiving a very low score: 2.83. Augusto Akio started well, but also fell in the middle of the lap, and received a score of 29.33. On the third attempt, Pedro Barros made a lap with an even higher degree of difficulty in the maneuvers than on the first run, but fell just a few seconds from the end. Even so, he received 81.00. In turn, Augusto managed to complete the third lap and improved his previous score a little: 88.98.
Another Olympic debutant, Luigi Cini, participated in the third heat. Right on the opening lap, the skater from Curitiba landed his tricks and got a score of 89.10. On his second attempt, Luigi fell and finished with a score of 29.33. He fell again on his third attempt. But the score was not missed. Luigi advanced to the semi-finals.
At the end of the four qualifying heats, Pedro Barros was sixth overall, followed by Luigi Cini in seventh and Augusto Akio in eighth. The best score was achieved by Australian Keegan Palmer, who achieved 93.78 on his last attempt.
One of the highlights of the qualifying rounds was the presence of two veterans among so many younger skaters. The “grandpas” Andrew Macdonald, from the United Kingdom, aged 51, and Dallas Oberholzer, from South Africa, aged 49, did not qualify for the finals, but they got the crowd going at the urban arena set up in Place de la Concorde, in Paris.
