A total of 215 skaters will be in action in Italy until October 8, including defending champions Jagger Eaton of the United States and Sky Brown of Britain.

With big names like Keegan Palmer of Australia and Sakura Yosozumi of Japan in the mix, the excitement for the competition in Rome is at an all-time high as they bid to seal a spot at the Olympic Games in the French capital next summer.

The top 27 skaters will make it to the quarter-finals and 16 will qualify for the semi-finals.

It will further reduce to eight who will compete for the top three podium spots.

Pre-seeded skaters have the luxury of making it to the quarters directly thanks to Olympic ranking points.

Among women, the three joining Brown and Yosozumi are Ruby Trew of Australia and the Japanese duo of Kokona Hiraki and Hinano Kusaki.

Brazilians Augusto Akio and Pedro Barros and Americans Tom Schaar and Tate Carew are the skaters among men to get a by to the last 16 stage along with Eaton.

With 130,000 points, Brown has a healthy overall lead over second placed Hiraki of Japan at 88,565.

While the Briton finished behind Hiraki for bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the 15-year-old beat her rival to the world title a few months ago this year in the United Arab Emirates.

To top that, she added a World Skateboarding Pro Tour 2023 gold medal in Argentina in May.

Meanwhile, Olympic champion Yosozumi will be hoping to make up for the disappointing show in San Juan.

Eaton will be full of confidence with the recent X Games gold medal in California and easily the one to beat among men.

Apart from fellow Americans, the 22-year-old defending world champion will be vary of the threat from Akio, who is only 13,338 points behind him in second overall with 81,748.

Having finished second in Sharjah, the 22-year-old Akio will be determined to change the colour of his medal in Rome.

Despite falling off the radar, Olympic champion Palmer will look to add to the X Games gold and silver he won this year.