NYORA’S 17-year-old skateboarder, Keefer Wilson, left it all out there in the men’s park final to finish out of the medals, but placing 8th in the world after blasting his way into the final with three sensational runs in the preliminary rounds.
However, by going for it all in the final, he wasn’t able to lay down a complete run to push further up the table.
He had the tricks and the moves, no doubt about that, but he needed to put at least one run together to mount a challenge.
He wasn’t on his own though as all competitors came out swinging and failing to complete at least one of their three runs.
Nyora is proud of Keefer and who knows what the future holds.
Here’s how it played out.
It was rarified atmosphere in the skatepark on the edge of Paris with the immortal legend himself Tony Hawk opening the final and American rapper Snoop Dogg in the house.
The first six runners in the final field of eight crashed out on their first runs, including Keefer Wilson, with everyone going for it all in an effort to nail the one big score that would take them to the top of the table.
But missing a run continued to build pressure.
Tom Schaar USA, recently signed to Tony Hawk’s board stable, was the first to make it through his first run and nailed a score of 90.11 to go into the top spot.
Next up was the reigning Olympic Gold Medalist Australia’s Keegan Palmer and he really put it together with some great tricks, featuring his signature kick-flip moves on a clear run to take over the top spot with a score of 93.11.
With the first nervous runs out of the way, the finalists came to play in the second of three runs, with the 8th placed competitor Augusto Akio almost getting right through an impressive routine before failing late in the run.
Lugi Cini of Brazil blew up on his first trick but his team mate Pedro Barros really brought it with some huge air over the Olympic rings and a number of great tricks with height and speed to surge into third position with 86.41.
Keefer Wilson had it going early in his second run but crashed hard over the falls to miss another chance, raising the pressure on his last run.
Tate Carew of the USA was next up and made it through a great routine to move up into the second position with a score of 91.17 much to the delight of Snoop Dogg and Tony Hawk in the crowd.
Another of the Americans Tom Schaar was out and into it next and he pulled off another terrific run nailing a score of 92.23 to move up into the silver medal spot.
The Aussie Keegan Palmer was still in the gold medal position as he lined up for his second run and really went for it, starting out with a kick-flip indy and a 540 before missing the board on one of the centre features.
Going into the last runs, Keegan Palmer was still on top.
In his third run Brazilian Pedro Barros put down a sensational run to really challenge the top skaters with a final score of 91.65 to jump into third position.
Next up was Nyora’s Keefer Wilson who had it all going on in his third and final run, making one of his best tricks before missing the grab halfway through and sliding down the bank. His Olympics was over, with a score of 58.36, enough for 8th in the world, but what a great achievement to make it to the skatepark final and show more than enough to suggest that this isn’t the last we’ll see of Keefer on the world stage.
“It’s been an absolute honour to be in this field with such incredible skaters,” said Keefer during the break between the qualifying and the final.
But the consolation prize for Keefer and the rest of the Aussies there and at home is that Australia’s Keegan Palmer nailed back-to-back gold medals, knowing he had taken the gold before he went on his victory lap in the third round.
