Didal, Cebu’s skateboarding pride, earns Olympics berth
FILE – Filipino skateboarder Margielyn Didal during the awarding ceremony of the street skateboarding event of 2019 Southeast Asian Games at Tagaytay Extreme Sports Complex on Saturday. | Photo by Earvin Perlas
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu’s skateboarding pride, Margielyn Didal, may not have qualified in the final round of the women’s category of the World Street Skateboarding Championships 2021 in Rome, Italy, but she earned her first Olympics berth.
The 2018 Asian Games gold medalist finished 17th overall in the women’s semifinals of the prestigious skateboarding Olympic qualifying tournament with a total of 8.04 accumulated points.
Her 17th place finish in the world championships helped her maintain her rank in the world rankings at 13th place. It was enough to make her qualify for the Olympics which selects the worlds top 16 skaters.
From ninth place before the semifinals, Didal catapulted herself to the No. 2 spot impressively scoring 3.49 points in the run section. She finished the second heat with 6.40 points to momentarily grab the No. 2 spot.
The pride of Barangay Lahug, this city gracefully executed crucial tricks such as nose grind, kick flips, feeble grind, and a 360-flip in her one minute routine.
However, Didal only managed to nail a single trick in the best trick attempt which resulted to her 17th place finish.
Nevertheless, Didal secured her Olympics berth along with nine other Filipino qualifiers Hidilyn Diaz in weightlifting, EJ Obiena in pole vault, Kurt Barbosa in taekwondo, Cris Nievarez in rowing, Carlo Yulo in gymnastics along with four boxers in Eumir Marcial, Carlo Paalam, Nesty Petecio, and Irish Magno.
Meanwhile, Leal Rayssa of Brazil headed to the finals of the World Street Skateboarding Championships 2021 being at the top spot with 14.40 total points followed by Japan’s Aori Nishimura with 14.24 while fellow Japanese Funa Nakayama is at third with 13.88 points.
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