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AAP
AAP
Sport
Roger Vaughan

Horigome snares street gold again with late heroics

Japan's Yuto Horigome has stunned his rivals with an outstanding last-ditch trick to win successive Olympic street skateboarding gold medals.

With his fifth and final trick in Monday's final at the Olympic skate park, Horigome landed a near-perfect 97.08 score.

That took him past American pair Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston, who did not score on their last attempt.

Horigome beat Eaton by just 0.1 points, with Huston claiming bronze.

Shane O'Neill
Shane O'Neill struggled in qualifying at the men's Olympic street skateboarding event. (Dean Lewins/AAP PHOTOS)

Earlier on Monday, Australian Shane O'Neill finished last in his heat, putting him out of medal contention.

Horigome, 25, did not score on his second, third and fourth tricks in the final.

He then stunned the crowd, which featured Snoop Dogg, and his rivals on his last attempt.

The men's event was scheduled originally for Saturday, but was delayed by two days because of the persistent rain that marred the opening ceremony.

Conditions were perfect on Monday, with the temperature around 30 degrees.

But there was no sunny outlook for O'Neill's Olympic campaign after he managed just 107.50 in qualifying.

O'Neill only managed a score of 16.50 from his two runs during heat one and that cruelled his chances.

He managed 91.00 on one of his five tricks, but that was all he landed in that section of the six-skater heat.

O'Neill has a massive online following and he said the crowd support was "awesome".

"The way the format is…if you mess your first runs up it's kind of hard to come back so it was tough," he said.

"It's all in good fun, and at that point of the contest it was all over for me so it was just fun from there."

Eaton, the Tokyo bronze medallist, was the top qualifier with 274.88 ahead of Huston, with Horigome fourth.

O'Neill finished 19th in the field of 22, while Horigome won the final with a total score of 281.14.

Horigome's triumph comes a day after 14-year-old compatriot Coco Yoshizawa won the women's street gold medal, with fellow Japanese skater Liz Akama claiming silver. 

Australian Chloe Covell finished an emotional eighth in the final.

- with AP

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