Japanese world champion Yuto Horigome held his nerve to be crowned skateboarding's first Olympic gold medallist after winning a tense street competition in Tokyo.
The 22-year-old, who grew up just a stone's throw from the Olympic venue, landed three huge tricks in a row to eclipse American favourite Nyjah Huston, who imploded to finish seventh.
In searing heat at Ariake Urban Sports Centre, Horigome finished with scores of 9.35, 9.50 and 9.30 for a total of 37.18, with Brazil's Kelvin Hoefler second and US skater Jagger Eaton third.
But there was disappointment for Huston, the much-hyped multiple world champion, who ended with four straight falls in the tricks section as he wound up second-last in the final.
Competition took place in front of rows of empty blue seats at the purpose-built arena, with fans barred from most Olympic events over the coronavirus.
It was the first of four gold medals to be handed out in skateboarding's Olympic debut, with women's street to be contested on Monday followed by the men's and women's park competitions.
Huston flirted with disaster in the heats, when he fell on his first run and botched his first two of five attempts at a one-off trick. But he fought back with a 9.13 and 8.96 to make the final in third place, with Horigome sixth.
In the final, Horigome had his head in his hands after a mistake on his first run, and the world number two fell twice in his second run before recovering his poise in the tricks section.
The free-flowing Japanese reeled off four scores over 9.0, interrupted by a fall on his second trick, tracked by Hoefler and Eaton as Huston faltered.
The skating was contested on ramps, rails and ledges on an undulating, unshaded stretch of concrete in 33 degrees Celsius near Tokyo Bay.
Skaters each had two 45-second runs on the equipment and five shots at a one-off trick. Their best four scores out of the seven make up their final total.
Olympic competition crowns a long journey for the counter-culture pursuit, which emerged as "sidewalk surfing" - an alternative to surfing - in California in the 1950s.
"Considering that snowboarding has been in the Olympics since 1998, I'm surprised it took this long for them to figure it out," skate legend Tony Hawk, speaking in Tokyo this week, said of skating's Olympic inclusion.
"I believe they needed a youthful energy to the summer Games and it's overdue."
Profile of Bitex UAE
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Founder: Monark Modi
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India Test squad
Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rahul, Vijay, Pujara, Rahane (vc), Karun, Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep, Pandya, Ishant, Shami, Umesh, Bumrah, Thakur
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
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The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE