Margielyn Didal and Renzo Mark Feliciano advanced to the medal race in the 19th Asian Games 2022 skateboarding women’s and men’s street events on Tuesday afternoon at the Qiantang Roller Sports Centre in Zhejiang Province.
Didal, 24, the defending champion, relied on her second run with a best score of 41.53 to secure the sixth spot out of nine qualifiers on Wednesday from a field of nine participants.
The Pinay skateboarder from Cebu started with 37.86 points in the first run of heats before surging in the second and making it to the finals with a chance to defend the gold medal she won in the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games.
Chinese skaters Wenhui Zeng (69.15) and Chenxi Zui (66.36) claimed the top two spots, followed by Japanese skaters Yumeka Oda (65.26) and Miyu Ito (53.96) in third and fourth, respectively. Vareeraya Sukaem finished fifth with a score of 45.39, Nathtiyabhorn Nawakitwong was seventh with 39.84, and Korean Siye Ha ranked eighth with 12.12.
On the men’s side, PH 2019 SEA Games silver medalist Feliciano pulled off an impressive score of 52.73 to take the lead after a lower 23.10 in the second run.
The top three finishers were Nippon Ginu Onodera (80.47), Korean Jihoon Jeong (74.49), and hometown favorite Jie Zhang (72.56). Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, and Indonesian skaters occupied the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th positions.
Didal and Feliciano aim to redeem the Philippines after Jericho Francisco Jr. and Mazel Paris Alegado finished fourth and fifth in the men’s and women’s park events on Monday, respectively, in consecutive medal attempts.
This marks the second consecutive time that skateboarding has been included as a medal sport in the quadrennial continental sports festival.
