Misugu Okomoto Wins Women’s Park Semifinal at Dew Tour Des Moines 2021

Misugu Okamoto, just 15 years old and already the top-ranked Women’s Park skater in the world prior to this week, stayed true to form on Friday, winning the Women’s Park Semifinal to advance to Sunday’s 8-woman Final.

Okamoto’s Run 2 highlights included a backside 360 transfer over the center box jump, a huge method air, a frontside tailslide, and backside disaster, and the backside 540 that she previously used to dominate the competition in 2019: it was the only landed 540 of the competition. Judges gave her a score of 51.66, one of just two runs in the contest to break the 50-point mark.

“I’m so relieved to finish 1st today because it’s been a challenging week with rain and not a lot of practice, and because we didn’t get to see what all the other women were working on before today,” Okamoto said, with an assist from translator Ray Takahashi after the contest. “I’m happy I was able to land the 540 because I didn’t land it in practice.”

Misugu is from Gifu City, Japan, and says she had a productive pandemic year, training at private facilities and at the Hi-5 Skatepark where she grew up skating. She says she came into this week with a lot of confidence. Still, with her competitors catching up fast and the pressure she has put on herself to do well at skateboarding’s Olympic debut in her home county, she’s not taking anything for granted.

“Now that the Semis are over, I can relax for a minute, but I know the final is going to be a big challenge,” she says. “I’m impressed by how much the other skaters have progressed since we last had contests two years ago: everyone is going higher and faster than before. Everyone has grown a lot, and everyone is pushing it, and I know some people are holding back big tricks for the final.”

So, is Okamoto holding something back for the final? She’s not spilling any details but gave a one-word answer: “Yes.”

Also making the top-8 cut for the Final: Sky Brown (representing Great Britain), Bryce Wettstein (USA), Sakura Yosozumi (Japan), Mami Tezuka (Japan), Kokona Hiraki (Japan), Kisa Nakamura (Japan), and Jordyn Barratt (USA).

Sky Brown, 12, finished 2nd, impressing in Run 1 with a big method air, alley-oop tricks, a backside lipslide, an Andrecht invert, and a big backside stalefish air, briefly holding the top spot. Judges awarded her 50.22 points.

Bryce Wettstein, currently the top-ranked skater representing the USA, broke into the top three with a Run 3 score of 46.53. She opened each of her three runs with a wild rock and roll on the top deck of the enormous plexiglass Toyota bank feature. In run three, she improved her run one score with a few highlights, including a backside ollie, boneless, feeble grind to fakie through the pool coping corner, a frontside Smith grind, a body varial disaster, and a frontside nosegrind right at the buzzer.

Advancing to Women’s Park Final:

1. Misugu Okamoto (JPN) 51.66
2. Sky Brown (GBR) 50.22
3. Bryce Wettstein (USA) 46.53
4. Sakura Yosozumi (JPN) 43.13
5. Mami Tezuka (JPN) 41.07
6. Kokona Hiraki (JPN) 40.00
7. Kisa Nakamura (JPN) 39.00
8. Jordyn Barratt (USA) 36.00