Sakura Yosozumi smiles after the first round of the skateboarding women's park final at Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo on Aug. 4, 2021. (Mainichi/Toshiki Miyama)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan cemented its place atop the skateboarding world Wednesday when Sakura Yosozumi won the women's park Olympic title to claim the nation's third gold in three events at the Tokyo Games.

       Yosozumi led a Japanese podium sweep of sorts at a sweltering Ariake Urban Sports Park, her 60.09-point first run bettering 12-year-old Kokona Hiraki's 59.04. Half-Japanese Briton Sky Brown, just 13 herself, took bronze with a 56.47 final run in the homeland of her mother.

       Yosozumi hit two 540s to close her first run, setting a standard no other skater could meet. She mixed in a variety of grinds and slides in a controlled run that ultimately won her the title.

       "I'm really, really happy," Yosozumi said with tears in her eyes, adding, "I had trained so hard that I had no regrets, and I think that led to the result."

       Had Hiraki or Brown won gold, they would have been the youngest-ever Olympic champions, but both were clearly ecstatic with their achievement as they beamed through tears on the podium's bottom two steps.

       Hiraki set her silver-winning score on her second run, mixing a clean kickflip with a creative stall on the rail element and throwing in a 360 for good measure.

       Brown went big in her first two runs, taking lots of speed into her vertical tricks with an all-out attitude. She bailed on a kickflip in the first and still scored 47.53, showing her promise for so much more.

       In her third run, the blonde-haired Brown put it all together, a handplant, 540, alley-oop and a variety of slides getting her the bronze.

       Japan's other finalist, Misugu Okamoto, let a medal slip through her fingers.

       The 15-year-old was the most daring of all the skaters, throwing 540s with abandon and attempting the highest difficulty tricks.

       Okamoto sat in third before Brown's final run and would have almost certainly won a medal on her final attempt but fell when trying a kickflip with just seconds remaining, costing herself dearly. She fell on all three runs but still finished with a best score of 53.58.

       Japan has now won all three skateboard events contested at the Tokyo Games so far with Yuto Horigome winning men's street and Momiji Nishiya taking women's street.

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