At Carioca Arena 1 in Rio de Janeiro, Nyjah Huston claimed the World Skate street world title with a 37.6 total, the highest score in Street League history. The 24-year-old edged Brazil's Kelvin Hoefler by the slimmest of margins to secure his fifth career world championship.
A duel settled on the final trick
The final became a frantic chase for the highest score. Hoefler struck first with a nine-club run and kept the pressure on with a kickflip crooked grind that pushed him back into the lead late in the contest. Huston answered each move, posting a 9.2-point run and landing a kickflip backside tailslide, but he still trailed with one attempt remaining.
With the title on the line, Huston pulled a trick he had not tried even in practice. He rolled into a 360 flip to frontside lipslide on the centerpiece rail, and the judges responded with a 9.6, the highest single score of the entire weekend. The arena broke open.
A fifth world crown after a season of setbacks
The victory was Huston's first world championship since 2017 and closed out a difficult season. A knee injury in Tampa that March had kept him from earning tour points, forcing him to battle through the semi-final in Rio just to reach the final. Once there, he delivered four tricks averaging 9.4 points each.
The 0.6-point gap between Huston and Hoefler made it the tightest world title finish the young World Skate format had seen. Twelve scores of nine or above lit up the Carioca Arena as the two skaters traded tricks, neither willing to blink.
"Winning today means everything to me," Huston told reporters afterwards. "Not just because it's my first win since last year, but because this was the most insane contest ever."
For a skater who had been winning Street League events since the age of fifteen, the record score in Rio marked a return to the top after a year spent recovering and climbing back.
