Eaton takes gold in men’s Park 2022 World Championships in Sharjah
The run that picked up the win felt like a miracle, he says
Sharjah: Jagger Eaton, the American skateboarder, hailed his men’s Park 2022 World Championships victory as a “miracle” at Aljada Skate Park in Sharjah, while 14-year-old Sky Brown said he was “stoked” at becoming Great Britain’s first world champion in the women’s event.
An incredible Sunday in the men’s Park 2022 World Championships saw Eaton score a 93.00 for gold after landing an astonishing flip nose blunt and blunt flip out in his third and final run. After becoming Street world champion in 2021, the same year he won an Olympic bronze in the discipline at Tokyo 2020, the Park crown makes Eaton the first skateboarder to achieve the double-discipline triumph. He was joined on the podium at Aljada Skate Park by the Brazilians Augusto Akio and Pedro Barros, who claimed silver and bronze respectively with 92.00 and 90.00 efforts.
Front runner
History was also made in the women’s Park 2022 World Championships in Sharjah, where Brown went into her third run already knowing she had won – only to score an even better 90.83 to bring home the gold in glory.
Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Hiraki Kokona was an early front runner until Brown’s second effort but the Japanese skater’s 86.66 total still earned silver. Her compatriot Yosozumi Sakura, the Olympic champion, earned bronze through an 85.15 score.
Co-organized by World Skate and UAE-based master developer Arada, both the Street 2022 World Championships, the final of which was in Sharjah on February 5, and the Park 2022 World Championships act as qualifiers for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Both final events witnessed totally full houses in the stands.
'Feels great'
Eaton said: “The run that picked up the win felt like a miracle. I’ve never put that run down – the trick I added I’ve not done one time and I just told myself ‘this is it, this it what it takes, I’m not going to get second’. It feels great.”
Brown said: “I had a lot of fun, I’m just so stoked. I was so glad about what I did in my three runs. The best feeling was when I landed a back five because I didn’t really practice that for a bit so landing that felt really good. It’s a confidence boost for the Olympics. Winning a gold medal at the Olympics would be crazy, that’s the goal – and I really want to get in for surfing as well, which makes it a bigger goal, but I’ll try my best.”
As well as vital Olympic qualification points, each gold medal winner took home a cheque for $50,000 from the total prize pool of $500,000 across both the Street 2022 World Championships and Park 2022 World Championships.