Two of Team SA’s skateboarding Olympians at Paris 2024 emerged top of the class at the 2024 Street Lines Skate Tournament at Thrashers Skatepark in Pretoria.
This was the fourth time the event has been staged and two-time Olympians Brandon Valjalo and Boipelo Awuah showed their international credentials when winning the men’s and women’s divisions, respectively.
In the qualifying rounds each skater had two 45-second runs with the top scoring run counting, while in the finals each skater had two 45-second runs along with four Best Trick attempts, with the top scoring run and top two best tricks counting towards their final score. Judges took consistency, difficulty, style, and use of park into account when making their decisions that would see 6 Women and 15 Men advance to the finals.
Valjalo’s high intensity runs were stacked with difficult and technical tricks – huge Indie Shifty over the Box, Switch Tre-Flip on the Bank, 360 Shove-It on the Pyramid Hip, back-to-back 5-0 180 and Nosegrind 180 on the Floor Boxes, 270 Transfer from the Quarter to Bank, 360 Shove-It over the whole Pyramid and a Bigspin Boardslide on the big Rail to be crowned champion.
For Awuah, who suffered an injury in the days leading up to her competition at Tokyo 2020 (staged in 2021), but who competed at Paris 2024, it was her fourth successfve Street Lines title. Her use of park paired with consistency and technical tricks; 50-50 on the Pyramid Rail, Frontboard on the A-Frame Rail, Noseslide on the Pyramid, 50-50 down the big Hubba and 50-50’s straight and down the Pyramid Rail ser her apart.
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