Skateboard Prodigy Kang Jun-i Finishes as World Championship Runner-Up, Writing New History Again

[Anchor]

Eighteen-year-old Kang Jun-i, who captured the first-ever Asian Games gold medal in South Korean skateboarding history, has written a new chapter by becoming the first South Korean athlete to finish as a runner-up at the World Championships.

Reporter Seo Dae-won has the details.

[Reporter]

In the competition where rankings are determined by combining the highest scores from the run session—which evaluates multiple performances within a given time—and the trick session—which judges a single technical maneuver—Kang finished the run session in second place.

Then, in his second attempt of the trick session, he flawlessly executed a high-difficulty technique known as a switch 270 lipslide.

[Broadcast Commentary: The crowd is going wild, and so are we. What an incredible trick!]

Soaring high into the air, he rotated 270 degrees, slid down a rail, and pulled off a clean landing to wrap it up.

Receiving a high score of 90.11 points to surge into the lead, Kang ultimately finished in second place, trailing Japan's Ginjiro Onodera by 2.94 points after Onodera, who had failed his previous two attempts, dramatically succeeded with an ultra-high-difficulty technique on his final try.

Having secured South Korea's first-ever skateboarding gold medal with a thrilling comeback at the Asian Games last month, Kang decorated South Korea's first-ever World Championship medal with silver, raising expectations even higher for the Olympics two years away.

[Kang Jun-i: I am so honored, and I will continue to work hard and put in the effort to achieve even better results moving forward.]

Another promising prospect, 15-year-old Shin Ji-yul, advanced to the women's final and placed sixth.

(Video Editing: Ha Seong-won, Design: Yang Gi-tae, Source: VF)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.