World SkatePark Dubai, Ceci Rules | Image taken at La Marina (UAE)
World Skate Dubai Park 2024 by Ceci Rules
High-level Skateboarding Competition: Challenging Limits at the World Skate Dubai Park.
A story of Ceci Rules at World Skate Dubai Park 2024
Skating at World Skate Dubai Park has undoubtedly been a privilege and a challenge. When I was selected to participate in this event, I didn’t fully grasp the magnitude of the high-level competition that awaited me. The Skatepark, designed by California SkateParks, was intended to push the limits of the world’s best skaters.
When my father dropped me off at the team hotel with the rest of the Spanish national skateboard team, I embarked on an experience I will never forget. We were in Dubai with all my friends, and this would be the final stop of the circuit, which promised to be a very positive experience on a personal level. However, I felt a bit unprepared, as my first world competition had been in Rome at World Skate, and this one would be very different from the previous event.
When I was selected to participate in this event, I didn’t yet feel like I was facing high-level competition, something that would push the limits.
I would have to skate in a park integrated into the Marina area, surrounded by impressive skyscrapers. It was a brand new skatepark built specifically for the WST championship, and no one had skated on it yet. Adding to that, we only had three days of official training sessions, with each session lasting 45 minutes and being shared among 14 girls per heat, all eager to skate. This turned into a super snaking experience.
I needed to score, to climb up the rankings in order to try and stay within the top 44, something that would take me to the next elimination phase towards Paris 2024, and that was my goal.
Nerves were on edge; the excitement of skating in the iconic Dubai harbour, with its majestic skyscrapers in the background, generated an unmatched energy and nerves. I hoped it would help me fight to continue….
World Skate Tour Park 2024
The heats.. | Ceci Rules at World Skate Dubai Park 2024
My two rounds of 45 seconds were ready, and all I had to do was nail them, but I failed in the first one… which meant I had to make sure to land everything in the second round, as mistakes are heavily penalized. Even so, the score I obtained was very close, leaving me just below the qualification cut-off for the quarterfinals… putting me on the brink of advancing.
I felt terrible, but that’s competitive skateboarding for you, where you have to showcase what you can do in just 45 seconds.
The next day, during the quarterfinals… still feeling the sting of being just below the cut-off, I was watching the warm-up rounds for the first semifinals when Alain (Alain Goikoetxea) called out to me and signaled for me to come over. I saw my name on the screen… I didn’t understand what was happening, so I ran down.
There he explained to me, “Ceci, you’re in again” because there was a withdrawal from another skater, and since I was just below the cut-off, I moved up a spot and had to skate… but how? I hadn’t warmed up, I didn’t have my protective gear… I had brought my skateboard by chance!
My teammate and roommate lent me her protective gear, and without realizing it, I was back with my tail firmly planted on the coping in the quarterfinals… fighting to score some more points that would help me achieve the goal of progressing to the pre-Olympics in the final phase towards Paris 2024.
Here, I fought as if there were no tomorrow, despite the handicaps I was facing, but I managed to nail a couple of rounds.
…they weren’t my best rounds, but my style started to emerge, and I loosened up a bit more, hoping that would be enough to keep me within the top 44.
Results WST 2024
Finally, back home and thinking on this last skateboarding world championship in Dubai, I have learned a lot. I’ve seen how the most experienced girls strategize, and I’ve managed to do what I really love, which is to skating. I am extremely happy with the 31st place, and I truly feel satisfied with everything that has happened and what I have learned. Now, I just have to wait for the publication of the world skateboarding ranking list and hope to be able to advance to #Paris2024.
Know more about ranking World Skate here
I want to thank my teammates who helped me a lot, the technical team for their hard work, and the Spanish Skating Federation and the National Skate Committee for considering me to continue growing as an athlete.
Thank you to all who support me and are always there for me!
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