Aori Nishimura / Photo Paulo Macedo via World Skate

This SLS comp was interesting from the get-go. Having  2 young newcomers in the field, Virginia Fortes Aguas and Karen Feitosa, changed the dynamic drastically. Especially when both girls came into the finals having bested last years Super Crown Champion Jenn Soto during semi-finals the previous day to earn their spots.

Virginia is only 12 years old and while she may not have all the tricks and power yet that the more seasoned veterans on tour have, she was posied and did trick after trick, showing that she will be a constant force this coming year. Her 5th place finish in the finals, ahead of pro's like  Pamela Rosa and Alexis Sablone had the crowd cheering for her.

We noticed another interesting thing about this comp - 2 of the girls were wearing helmets when competing, which is very unusual for a street contest.  Virginia and Aori Nishimura both sported helmets throughout their runs - perhaps this is a new trend?  It used to be frowned upon in street, perhaps now that Aori is the new Women's World Champion - that stigma will change?

With the format of two, 45 second runs per skater and then having 5 tries at "best trick" and throwing out the 3 lowest scores for a combined total of only the 4 highest scores, kept everyone on the edge of their seats as places on the leaderboard changed back and forth during the best trick portion of the comp.

It was exciting to see Aori score a "9" and join the 9 Club during best trick and soon after Leticia did teh same on her last trick. It was a true battle between these two until the very end. Everyone assumed after Leticia pulled ahead of Aori by a narrow margin on her last trick, it was Leticia bring home the win, but Aori scored one tenth of a point higher to change the lead again and take home the coveted status of SLS World Champion.

Congrats Aori! 

RESULTS

1st  Aori Nishimura  32.6
2nd Leticia Bufoni    32.5
3rd  Lacey Baker      28.5

4th  Mariah Duran
5th  Virginia Fortes Aguas
6th  Pamela Rosa
7th  Karen Feitosa
8th  Alexis Sablone