Skateboard GB Team compete in Brazil for Olympic points

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The entire Skateboard GB Team will come together for the Park World Championship and SLS World Championship in Sao Paulo, Brazil starting on 9th September 2019.

This is the first time the 5 athletes will be together since April, when the selection announcement for the team, which is part of the UK Sport Aspiration Fund to help them qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The GB skateboarders have their hopes set high for the World Skate events, as they are the last qualifying competitions as part of season 1 and carry the highest possible Olympic ranking points in the series.

The 5 hopefuls are Sky Brown, Sam Beckett, Alex Hallford and Jordan Thackary who all skate in the park discipline and Alex Decunha who skates in the street discipline.

Last month Sky Brown finished 5th in the ISO International Championship event in Nanjing, giving her a world ranking of 9th and keeping her right on track for Olympic qualification for the Tokyo Games in 2020.

Alex Hallford and Jordan Thackary competed alongside Sky for Dew Tour in Los Angeles back in June, for the first qualifying park event, while Alex Decunha joined them for the street contest at same competition.

Sam Beckett had been hampered with injury for the first half of the year but made his comeback to international circuit earlier this month, competing at the X-Games in Minneapolis, USA.

Skateboard GB athletes must compete at a series of Olympic qualifying events over the next 11 months in order to gain points to allow them to progress to Tokyo. Qualifying is split into 2 seasons; the first ending in October and the second following on Immediately after.

Lucy Adams, professional skateboarder and the chair of Skateboard GB said ‘The events in Brazil are really important for us and strong results will put our Skaters in good stead for Olympic qualification. There is great comradery in the team, so it's fantastic to see them all coming together once again to compete’.

Neil Ellis