Japan's Horigome lands first Olympic skateboard gold at Tokyo 2020

Horigome Yuto of Japan competes during the men's street final of skateboarding at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, July 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

TOKYO, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Yuto Horigome of Japan became the first-ever Olympic champion in skateboarding here on Sunday.

The 22-year-old world champion recovered from an uncertain start in the men's street final to claim victory with a total score of 37.18 points.

"I still cannot believe that I was competing at the Olympics. I was really happy that I could do my best skating in Koto City. The Olympics means so much to me," said Horigome.

"When skateboarding officially became an Olympic sport at first I was not thinking about participating or anything. But I had built my way up to the Olympics with everything I have done, and I was really happy to get the gold medal this time."

The turning point of Horigome's performance came on his fourth trick attempt when he landed an exceptional nollie 270 noseslide that would earn him a competition-best score of 9.5 points out of 10 to erase the low score from his second run and put him into a lead that he would not relinquish.

"I remember thinking, 'I cannot miss the fourth trick'. So I was very focused and believed in what I had done until then. I went for that trick and I landed it," said Horigome.

Brazil's early leader Kelvin Hoefler took silver on 36.15, with bronze going to Jagger Eaton of the United States on 35.35.

Eaton's team-mate Nyjah Huston, pre-event favorite, finished seventh in the eight-man final on 26.10, failing to record a score for his final four tricks after making a strong start.