Street 2022 World Skateboarding Championships in Sharjah set for semifinal showdown

SHARJAH: The quarterfinals of the Street 2022 World Skateboarding Championships at Aljada Skate Park in Sharjah on Friday saw big tricks and a dramatic day of action that set up the highly anticipated semifinals on Saturday for some of the sports finest athletes.

Among them was Chloe Covell, at 12 years old the youngest competitor in the field, who said: “I feel good after that, I got a pretty big score and it’s definitely given me more confidence leading into the finals. I think what got me the score was me doing switch tricks — standing the opposite way to do a trick — which gets you more points. I hope the semifinal will go well and I think everything will go to plan if I just do what I can do and not overthink it too much.”

The Street 2022 World Skateboarding Championships’ grand finale for both men and women at Aljada Skate Park is on Sunday, Feb. 5.

The Park 2022 World Skateboarding Championships begin that day as well, with the Sharjah hub hosting the tournament’s quarterfinals on Friday, Feb. 10, semifinals on Saturday, Feb. 11, and the final on Sunday, Feb. 12.

Both competitions act as qualifiers for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris — with all 12 Olympic medallists from the 2020 Games competing in the star-studded Sharjah line up.

A record-breaking total of more than 450 of the world’s best skateboarders are starring at the Street 2022 and Park 2022 World Championships for a prize pool of $500,000. Gold-medal winners in each discipline, in both the male and female categories, receive a $50,000 prize.

In the men’s Street event, the following skateboarders qualified for Saturday’s semifinal at Aljada Skate Park: Jagger Eaton (US); Kelvin Hoefler (Brazil); Aurelien Giraud (France); Ginwoo Onodera (Japan);