What a surprising last day in Nanjing! For the very first time an African Country reaches the gold medal in the skating disciplines. "An extremely interesting medal table shows how much our sports are widely practised all over the world: I am so proud to see all the 5 continents represented with their top athletes" FIRS President, Sabatino Aracu said. 31 Countries won medals and Colombia leads the Nation's Ranking with 24 Gold Medals, followed by Italy with 21 and France with 12.
With the Closing Ceremony, the first edition of the World Roller Games reached the end: XIE XIE NANJING - HASTA LUEGO EN BARCELONA!
Below a quick brief of the competitions: for more info, go to the discipline News section.
Artistic
The Senior pairs and the Large Groups competitions closed the artistic events in Nanjing. The Gala of all the 2017 World Champions took place soon before the Closing Ceremoy.
Inline Downhill
The last day was dedicated to the Inline Cross: France got the Senior Gold Medal thanks to Sebastien Rastegar, followed by Agostino Tussetto (Italy) and Christian Montavon (Switzerland). In the Women competitions, the Italian Martina Paciolla got the gold medal; the Silvers goes to Emilie Sadoux (France) and the bronze to Antonia Borsig (Germany).
Inline Freestyle
For the first time two gold medals were given to skaters from Africa in Free Jump Women and Men. An outstanding result coming from athletes at their first participation at a World Championship. Moreover, Awa Balde managed to break the women world record (1m19), previously held by French Maeliss Conan, jumping 1m25.
Dame Fall won the gold medal in a tough final against Florian Petitcollin (FRA). He tries to break the world record too, trying to jump 1m61, but unfortunately he fails three times and wins the competition with 1m59. He is a strong athlete who may even get better if he mastered his jumping technique.
Both athletes showed an unexpected strength: their jumps were way higher than the bar at the beginning and Awa Balde even changed her jumping technique during the competition.
Speed
The closing event of the World Roller Games 2017 in the Speed discipline is the Marathon for Jun-ior/Senior Ladies and Junior/Senior Men. The circuit was developed along a 10km lap, with very long flat straight and two U turns.
Video Highlights, Pictures & Results
Photo Credits
(Photo Credits Alpine: Jana Borsig)
(Photo Credits Artistic: Raniero Corbelletti)
(Photo Credits Inline Hockey&Roller Derby&Inline Freestyle: Marco Guariglia)
(Photo Credits Rink Hockey&Congress&Inline Freestyle: Marzia Cattini)
(Photo Credits Speed&Roller Freestyle: Erika Zanetti)
(Photo Credits Skateboarding: Piero Capannini)
Artistic skating - ftp://firsftp.enetres.net/FIRS/Artistic/
Inline Alpine - ftp://firsftp.enetres.net/FIRS/Alpine/
Inline Downhill - ftp://firsftp.enetres.net/FIRS/Downhill/
Inline Freestyle - ftp://firsftp.enetres.net/FIRS/InlineFreestyle/
Inline Hockey - ftp://firsftp.enetres.net/FIRS/InlineHockey/
Rink Hockey - ftp://firsftp.enetres.net/FIRS/RinkHockey/
Roller Derby - ftp://firsftp.enetres.net/FIRS/RollerDerby/
Roller Freestyle - ftp://firsftp.enetres.net/FIRS/RollerFreestyle/
Skateboarding - ftp://firsftp.enetres.net/FIRS/Skateboarding/
Speed skating - ftp://firsftp.enetres.net/FIRS/Speed/