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Once again some of the world's best skateboarders have decended on "The SPOT" skate park just outside of Rome June 18-21, 2009. This years prize purse boasts 25,000 Euro / approx $35,700USD! Check back for complete results.
Rome is Hot in the summer! The 2nd annual WCS event here in Rome is back at The Spot Skatepark which is conveniently placed just 1 block from the beach, which is great to kick it and cool down. We spent he first few days doing just that, and also doing lots of touring around to enjoy the amazing Roman sites and absorb the local culture. As the skaters started arriving, the sessions got heated up. Especially the bowl sessions. The mini bowl is a new addition to the park this year, so we held some jam session qualifiers on Friday evening, congrats to Carlos de Andrade who got super tech and qualified 1st.
On Saturday we started the day with the Street qualifiers where Daniel Viera, who got 2nd last year, rose up to the #1 qualifying spot! Then just before the sun was going down we held the vert prelims where Brazilian Dan Cezar put together the run of his life to qualify in the #1 spot.
The Bowl finals on Saturday night were held under the lights under only a slightly cooler night air. The format was 10 skaters in 2-5 man heats with 2 intro runs each followed by a 15 min. jam session. Everyone was getting in the groove and ripping hard. What a great show! The crowd was going wild after every run! Carlos de Andrade qualified 1st on Friday and took it up a few notches to take the win on Saturday! Backside 360 ollie big spins, nollie heel backisde 360, fakie 5-0 to Kick flip fakie in, 360 flips to fakie, etc...etc... the list goes on. He was also ripping the 8' escalator zone. Congrats to Carlos! Juergen  Horrwarth has a great mini bowl at his local park in Berlin, so it came as no surprise to see him finish in 2nd. He ripped the whole bowl with smooth and stylish lines, mixed in with some stylish tricks. Brazilian Otavio Neto has a very unique bag of tricks, including every kind of nollie variation you can imagine. That mixed in with his speedy style and consistency on long ripping runs earned him the #3 spot. Daniel Cardone is from Bologna Italy where Dreamland built him one of the best skateparks in the world. His skills are staying sharp these days and like a true Dagger, he adapted his unique style perfectly to this bowl. He looks like he was born to ride bowls. He did high lofty, nose grab leins in the big section, followed by speedy and stylish lines over every inch of the bowl and the hip. He tried to contain himself to the mini bowl during the jams, but in the end during the best trick comp he ended up pulling off one of the the biggest moves of the weekend. I do not know where he got the speed from, but he flew about 6' out of the 8' section onto a fronside wall bash and back in!! After he landed he continued his run with a super stylish frontside flip in the corner! Once again the crowd went nuts! Daniel finished in a very respectable 4th. Last years vert winner Marcelo Kosake showed off his bowl skills to take 5th, above fellow Brazilians Mizeal Simao 6th and Dan Cezar 7th. Australian Renton Millar finished 8th, Floridian 11 year old Alex Sorgente, also lives in Italy finished in 9th and local Italian Gypsy and bowl ripper Giuseppe Taccori got 10th. Today is the finals for Street and Vert, so check back for results, more stories and photos.
The street started out with 24 skaters in the semi finals. We did 5 minute jams sessions and we took the top 12 scores from all of the heats to the finals. The Brazilians were skating strong today and Carlos de Andrade qualified first and Daniel Viera 2nd. It was Ondrej from Prague 3rd, Vanderlei from Brazil 4th and Oscar from Denmark who qualified 5th. Then we went to the vert ramp, just moments after a tornado (yes a real tornado) whipped by just a few miles away from the beach near the skate park. We had a talk with the guys as the winds were calming down and they all decided to try and do the comp anyways in case the rain was coming. After 3 runs were taken by all 10 skaters, it was Australian Renton Millar who rolled away with the best run, the #1 spot and 2,000 Euros! (He came in 2nd place last year). He threw down two variations of 540s, lots of flip tricks and spin tricks, all in one solid run. Last years winner, Brazilian Marcelo Kosake also skated hard but had to settle for 2nd this year. Juergen Horrwarth from Berlin flew very high and smooth and even amazed himself when the 45 seconds were over and he was still rolling! He finished a well deserved place. Some guys had some trouble staying on their boards so the rankings got mixed up a little from the day before, but you can't mess with Mother Nature! When you feel her wrath you just gotta stay positive and try to ride it out. The music was rockin' and none the less the fans were stoked to see some amazing vert skating which is not so common here in Italy.
After the vert comp, we went back to the street, where all of the finalists were ready for the 10 minute jams, and jam it up they did! Too many exciting tricks to name, but in the end it was the Brazilian Daniel Vieira who took the #1 spot away from Carlos de Andrade, who has to settle for 2nd. Ondrej finished 3rd, and Diego Fiorese rose up from 8th place in the semis, to 4th in the finals! My room mate for the weekend, Lukas Danek from Prague, gave it all he had at the right time to take the #5 spot! After the street comp we had the best tricks for cash $ and gave away 500 Euros in 3 different street zones! That was an exciting way to finish the day! The theme of the comp is 'It's All about Style!', so the whole crew dressed up in fancy white Sunday duds for the awards ceremony. We gave out 25,000 to all of the winners and everyone seemed very happy as the cold beers started flowing. Thanks to the skate park kitchen who kept the food and the warm fresh pizzas flowing for the riders and their guests all weekend. Also a very special thanks from the WCS staff and all of the skaters to Mark and Willy from the SPOT skate park for all of their hard work in organizing such a great event, and for taking such great care of everyone all week long. Also thanks to all of the sponsors, it seems that they are all happy and the future looks good for a 2010 WCS comp here in Rome.
Special Thanks to Albo @ SkateMap.it for the gallery pics!
Complete results here... TIMtribu complete results
TIMtribu WCS Rome gallery... TIMtribu WCS Rome '09 Gallery
Day 1 video here... Day one video
Day 2 video here... Day two video
Day 3 video here... Day three video
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