Eighteen-year-old rising star Kang Jun-i, who won South Korea's first-ever skateboarding gold medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games last month, has finished as the runner-up at the World Championships.

Competing in the men's street final at the 2026 World Skate Games skateboarding world championships held in Luque, Paraguay, in the early hours of today (the 19th, KST), Kang scored a combined total of 179.32 points from his run and tricks to place second.

He finished 2.94 points behind Japan's Ginwoo Onodera, who claimed the championship with 182.26 points.

The competition determines rankings based on a maximum total of 200 points, combining scores from the "run," where skaters freely navigate the course for 45 seconds, and "tricks," which showcase individual high-difficulty maneuvers.

In the eight-skater final, Kang recorded his highest score of 89.21 points during his third attempt among the three run sessions, trailing behind Onodera in second place.

Kang then earned a high score of 90.11 points on his second attempt in the subsequent trick session to briefly rise to first place in the intermediate rankings. However, Onodera successfully landed a high-difficulty trick in his final third attempt to score 92.12 points, taking the gold medal and leaving Kang with the silver.

Although he narrowly missed out on the title, Kang achieved the highest-ever result for South Korean skateboarding at the World Championships, further raising expectations for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Another promising skater, Shin Ji-yul, who competed in the women's street final, finished sixth among the eight finalists.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)