A skateboarding competition was hosted by The House Skatepark, in Kelham Island, for the first time on Saturday, to encourage children to compete in international events.
The Survival of the Sickest event series aims to encourage junior skateboarders to get onto the Pipeline Project talent pathway for youngsters who are striving to compete at national and international events.
The event featured four competitions throughout the day in the street discipline of skateboarding, with under-16s and under-12s categories. The winners were awarded their prizes by Lord Mayor Jayne Dunn.
The Lord Mayor said: “The energy and skill shown by the young people blew the GB skateboard judges away, and this competition helped feed into the main competition where the elite skaters could compete in the Olympics.”
“It was the first time such an event has been held in Sheffield and was absolutely fantastic.”
One skater traveled from Jersey for the competition, with others coming from Liverpool and Cardiff.
The third-place winner in the under-12 event was won by eleven-year-old, Elijah Arulanantham, who started skating when he was eight years old.
He said: “At the start, I was nervous and I did not think I was going to win, and I was annoyed with my first run because I got 27 points, but in my second run, I got a higher score of 55.67, so I was really stoked with that.”
“I signed up because I want to get more experience, I want to maybe win, and meet new people. For me, it wasn’t just about winning coming here; I have met a lot of wonderful people. It’s nice being hyped up and watching everybody have fun.”
The skatepark celebrated its 27th anniversary last year and is one of the most well-known skateboard parks in the UK.
Cllr Rob Bannister, who co-founded the park in 1998, said: “We wanted to skate and there was nowhere to go. We were using derelict buildings, but we got bored of them being knocked down, so we decided to go legit.”
“When I started skateboarding, there was basically no one doing it and you would just get bullied a lot for doing it. Whereas these days we are mainstream, we are an Olympic sport.”
“We’ve gone from being the grubby, funky kids on the corner to being just another sport.”
Sheffield is home to Skateboard GB, which was founded there in 2017.
