RP’s Castañeda captures bronze

KUALA LUMPUR – In a feat that will surely inspire the youths and help popularize the sport back home, skater Leo Castañeda nearly did the unthinkable but still came out with a bronze medal performance that glittered like gold at the close of the Asian X Games Qualifier IV Sunday night here.

The 20-year-old Castañeda, who barely made it to the 10-man finals of the skateboarding (park) event at ninth, came out smoking in the first of two 60-second runs before pouring it all out in the second to finish third behind the fancied Australian duo of Darren Kaehne and Jeff Williams.

He scored 85 points in heat 2, dishing out a superb combination of 5-0 grind, kickflip backside 50-50, switchstance and more, missing only once when he failed to complete his slide on the ledge.

"Swerte lang," said the sturdy skater from Quezon City.

But in a highly-subjective sport like skateboarding, one needs more than luck to prevail as Castañeda displayed guts, determination and mental toughness in performing his repertoire of tricks in this event presented by Toyota and staged by ESPN Star Sports.

Kaehne literally soared high and bested the field with an 87-point performance in heat 1, upstaging his cocky compatriot Williams, who only nipped the Filipino bet by only 0.33 points for the silver medal.

It was indeed a stirring performance by Castañeda, who thus got back at some of his Southeast Asian rivals in Mohd Ramli (Malaysia), Mohd Latif (Singapore), who beat him in last year’s Philips X Rush in Jakarta.

Ramli, who finished in the elims, placed fifth, while Latif, sixth in the prelims, wound up seventh.

"Talagang pinaghandaan ko sila. Siguro kung wala yung mga Aussies, ako ang nanalo (I really prepared hard for them. Had there been no Aussie competitors, I would’ve won it)," said Castañeda, the Gravity Skateshop-backed skater, who had opted to take up the DECS Study Program to concentrate more on his sport.

He, however, hopes his feat would serve as an inspiration to the other Filipino kids and teeners who are into action sports.

Castañeda’s bronze medal performance likewise made up for Ina Flores’ 10th place finish in the women’s speed climbing and Kristian Guerrero’s 14th place effort in the men’s side.

The Indons emerged the event’s fastest climbers as Evi Neliwati ruled the women’s event in 9.09 seconds and Nur Rohman Rosyid topped the men’s side in 7.18 seconds.