Andy Anderson is about to have his Olympic moment.
The White Rock skateboarder is set to debut at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics this evening Pacific Time – Thursday morning in Tokyo – when the men’s park event drops into the bowl at the Ariake Urban Sports Park, which is Tokyo’s skateboarding venue.
Anderson, 25, will make his first run during the preliminary heats, which begin at 5 p.m. Pacific Time (9 a.m. in Japan). In total, 20 competitors will take part, with the top eight from the prelims advancing to the finals later in the evening – likely around 8:30 p.m.
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In the park competition, skateboarders compete in a bowl-like course. Skaters launch themselves off the sides of the walls in 45-second runs and their tricks are judged by a panel of judges. Skaters get three 45-second runs per round, and the judges grade them on a 0-100 point scale. A skater’s best score of three is the qualifying score.
The bowl at the Ariake Urban Sports Park is brand new, so none of the competitors had any previous experience on it until practice sessions earlier this week. In a pre-competition interview on CBC’s television broadcast, Anderson said he was at “Stage 1 of 100” when it came to figuring out the bowl, and what series of tricks he would be able to perform when the competition began.
sports@peacearchnews.com
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