It has been an epic 5 days of non-stop sports in Montpellier with over 612.583 people turning out to watch the packed schedule of sports. Below a short recap of the World Skate/FISE Roller Freestyle World Cup Finals.
WS ROLLER FREESTYLE WORLD CUP FINAL - WOMEN
Local rider Lisa-Marie Authié took third place with a high speed run which started with a massive misty flip on the fun box, and the crowd loved every second of it! The current FISE World Series champion, Manon Derrien from Bordeaux, skated her very best for a chance to grab the win in Montpellier. She laced a very clean run, only lacking a bit of speed and amplitude to climb higher than second place. On the top spot stood Chihiro Azuma, 22 years old, who took advantage of her first trip to France to lace two absolutely stunning runs. Smooth, stylish and technical, she simply owned this course from start to finish and rolled away with the gold!
WS ROLLER FREESTYLE WORLD CUP FINAL - MEN
As usual CJ Wellsmore shared with us a taste of vacation with his Hawaian shirt and eternal good vibes. Another bit of refreshment and exotism came from 14 years old rider from South Korean, Yoon Jay Jonghyun, definitely a name to learn how to spell as we will write it down on many occasions in the future. Maybe just shout his name YOOOOOOOON and wait for the brillant actions that result. Spinning on every obstacle, his skating seems to be more mature that it should be at such a young age. He finished 5th for his first trip in Europe and made his daddy proud.
On a more usual note, the french troop was on point again this year. Yuma Baudoin (2nd), Roman Abrate (3rd) tried to challenge Jeremy Melique who was on fire all week long but they both felt short. The course seems to fit Jeremy’s style and nothing prevented him from winning the event, not even a dialed run from Joe Atkinson. Although everything looked so fine with the british rider, the judges felt it was not enough to challenge the blue-white and red’s. Hands up for Jérémy Melique who could not hide his joy as he won his first World competition.
