Sweet 13! China's Cui queen of the skateboard teens at Asian Games

AFP | Hangzhou             

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Thirteen-year-old Cui Chenxi became China's youngest gold medallist at the Asian Games in Hangzhou when she won the women's street skateboarding event on Wednesday.

Cui, who is just over 1.5 metres (4ft 11in) tall, landed her first two individual tricks to race into the lead with a score of 242.62.

She failed to land any more but she had already done enough to claim gold ahead of compatriot Zeng Wenhui on 236.61 and Japan's Miyu Ito on 221.59.

"My tactic was to be conservative on the first run to get some points on the scoreboard, then make a push for it on the second run," she said.

Fresh-faced skateboarders have been tearing it up at the Asian Games, with nine-year-old Mazel Paris Alegado competing for the Philippines in Monday's women's park final.

Margielyn Didal of the Philippines was the only skater over 20 in the women's street final, which also featured 11-year-old Vareeraya Sukasem and 12-year-old Nathtiyabhorn Nawakitwong, both of Thailand.

Cui, who started skateboarding three years ago, said her coaches had told her it was "OK if I fail doing the tricks I want to do".

"I always wanted to win gold," she said.

"This competition is different from other competitions, so I especially wanted to win this one."

Cui's teammate Zhang Jie made it a China double when he won the men's street gold later in the day.

The 16-year-old landed three of his individual tricks to win the competition with 231.14 points, ahead of Indonesia's Sanggoe Darma Tanjung on 200.63 and China's Su Jianjun on 195.73.

Hotly tipped Japanese 13-year-old Ginwoo Onodera, who became the youngest-ever street skateboarding champion at the X Games this year, failed to land a single individual trick and finished seventh.

Zhang said he was excited to win a gold that he "never saw coming", after making sure he landed his tricks cleanly.

"Many of them went for difficult tricks," he said.

"I went for tricks that weren't so difficult."

Onodera won praise from skating legends Tony Hawk and Nyjah Huston after also finishing third at the world championships.

He led after the starting multi-trick run section but then faded badly, failing to land all five of his individual trick attempts.

Onodera told AFP he "didn't know what happened".

"My run was good but I couldn't land my best trick, so it's frustrating," he said.

Tanjung said his silver medal was "huge" after struggling to adapt to the stifling heat after days of rain in Hangzhou.

"It's outdoors and we only get an hour practice and then straight to skating," he said.

"I can't believe I got the silver medal because everybody is good, everybody is going crazy at this park."