Rayssa Leal overcomes injury and is world champion of Skate Street, in Sharjah

Rayssa Leal’s week started with a fall during training and pain in her wrist and ended with the Skate Street world title in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates. The 15-year-old Brazilian was spectacular in the final this Sunday, reaching the highest score of the day (87.22) and a sum of 255.58 to guarantee the gold medal and the title of world champion.

This is Rayssa’s first title at the age of 15, as she had her birthday last month. The maranhense achieves the two main skate street titles, with the World League and the World Championship. Rayssa reaches 80 thousand points in the classification ranking and puts “one foot” in the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Rayssa Leal fell last Thursday while participating in a training session at the Street World Championship. There was no fracture, but Rayssa remained in pain and her wrist was bandaged. Even so, she managed to beat Chloe Covell (253.51), Australian 12-year-old phenom, and Japanese Olympic champion Momiji Nishiya (253.30) in the final. The Brazilians Gabriela Mazetto (221.45) and Pâmela Rosa (126.52) were also in the disputes of the final and were in sixth and eighth position, respectively.

The competition started with two laps on the track for each athlete. Pâmela Rosa opened the laps for Brazil. The skater failed in the maneuvers on the first attempt and got a score of 12.21. Despite opening with a fall, the second round had a recovery from Pamela, who scored 43.38.

Gabi Mazetto was the second Brazilian to perform and got a score of 58.64 because she couldn’t perform her last maneuver. The second attempt was similar and Gabi was unable to raise the grade. To close, Rayssa Leal had a score of 83.32 on the first lap and was one of the four athletes to pass 80 on the track.

In the single maneuvers, Pamela and Gabi missed the first attempts. Rayssa made a calm maneuver on the larger handrail and reached a score of 85.04, remaining in contention for the podium. To reassume the leadership in search of the world title, Fadinha had the best score of the day in the third maneuver, 87.22. Two tricks from the end, the Brazilian accumulated 258.68.

Pâmela Rosa got a good score in the second maneuver, 83.14. The same happened with Gabi, who rose to 79.35. The two needed one more high note to try for a podium, after not standing out in the laps. Pâmela fell again in the last attempts and finished with a sum of 126.52, placing eighth. Mazetto, on the other hand, fit the back of the skate well to a note of 86.43 and rose to sixth, with a sum of 221.45.

Check out the results of the women’s final:

1st Rayssa Leal (BRA) – 255.58

2nd Chloe Covell (AUS) – 253.51

3rd Momiji Nishiya (JAP) – 253.30

4th Rizu Akama (JAP) – 251.91

5th Funa Nakayama (JAP) – 240.79

6th Gabriela Mazetto (BRA) – 221.45

7th Paige Heyn (USA) – 211.71

8th Pamela Rosa (BRA) – 126.52