Skateboarding teen becomes nation's youngest Asiad champion

China's 15-year-old Chen Ye upset two seasoned Japanese skateboarders to win the men's skateboarding park event at the Hangzhou Asian Games to become the country's youngest Asian Games champion on Monday.

Chen emerged as the winner of an exhilarating battle with a score of 84.41 points, narrowly beating Japan's Yuro Nagahara by a margin of 0.41 points. Reigning Asiad champion Kensuke Sasaoka, also from Japan, had to settle for bronze after falling in his earlier runs.

Expressing his excitement, Chen said, "Winning the gold medal is beyond my expectations. Japanese boarders are very competitive, and I have learned a lot from them."

Chen began his romance with skateboarding when he was eight and was selected by his provincial team of Guangdong three years later. He then made a splash at the National Games in 2021 with park event silver finish at the age of 13.

Supported by his father, who used to train his son as a music player, Chen got inspired when his father made him two skateboarding training courses turned from storage houses from 2019.

Skateboarding was introduced firstly to the Asian Games in the Jakarta Games in 2018 as emerging sport popular with the younger generation.