By MARK REY MONTEJO
Filipino skateboarder Jericho “Kiko” Francisco bolstered his bid to qualify for the 2024 Paris Games after barging into the second phase of the Olympic Qualification System (OQS) in male’s park event.
Francisco, 22, banked on his impressive run in the World Skateboarding Tour in Dubai, United Arab Emirates with a best run of 57.68 points.
Though he failed to advance to the said tournament’s quarterfinals, his performance was enough to enhance his Olympic World Skateboarding Ranking (OWSR) points to 6,439 at the end of the first phase.
Only the Top 44 are qualified to OQS events — in Shanghai, China on May 14 to 19 and in Budapest, Hungary on June 18 to 23 — where Francisco needs to perform well to make it to the Top 20 that would earn him berth to the Paris Games.
Currently, there are only three Asian skaters in the 44 entries in the park event that include Japan’s Yuro Nagahara at 13th and China’s Ye Chen at 43rd.
United States and Brazilian bets topped the list with American Gavin Bottger leading the field, followed by teammate Jagger Eaton. Brazil’s Augusto Aiko is at third.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympian Margielyn Didal failed to make it to the Top 44 of the female street event after finishing at 50th at the end of the first phase of qualifications.
Christina Means and Cindy Lou Serna also finished 60th and 78th, respectively.
Mark Feliciano and John Flory “Motic” Panugalinog also landed 138th and 164th in male street.
The World Skateboard started its Olympics qualifying period from June 2022 and will end on June 23 this year.
