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COSTA RICA |
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Costa Rica, Jason Torres Both Earn Silver
Medals at IX Panam Surfing Games
Riding on the extraordinary surfing of a
slew of Ticos, the best of whom ended up in
2nd place overall in the IX Pan American
Surfing Games, the Costa Rica National Surf
Team today made history by placing 2nd in
the Games that took place at Playa Olivenca
de Ilhéus - Bahia, Brazil.
With the skills of Jason Torres earning his
first silver medal in the Open, Costa Rica
secured its 4th consecutive pódium visit at
the PanAmerican Surfing Games since 2003. In
this opportunity, however, rather than
mining Bronze and Copper as before, the
overall points earned by the team resulted
in their earning a silver medal and a
subchampionship at these PanAmerican Surfing
Games.
This team silver medal is even more
significant since Costa Rica competed in
Brazil with an incomplete team. From the
nine selections that arrived here, only
Peru, Venezuela and Guadalupe brought the
full 15 athletes for the 6 categories. Costa
Rica took 8 competitors.
"We do not really believe it," said José
Ureña, President of the Federacion de Surf
de Costa Rica and Technical Director of the
Costa Rica National Surf Team. "The praises
of the other teams and people who followed
up in these competitive days came at us from
all sides. It's not something that we can
say enough, but the work that we managed to
do has been even better because we arrived
here with only 60 percent of a team."
Torres ended up in the final heat by winning
2nd place in Repercharge Heat 6, where he
bested the other high-ranking Costa Rican
Jair Pérez. Pérez ended these PanAmerican
Surfing Games ranked #5.
The final heat of the event was actually won
by Brazilian Ruda Carvalho, and also
featured besides Torres, Venezuelan Rafael
Pereira and Brazilian Franklin Serpa. The 25
minutes provided a great end, where
Asociacion Latin American Surfing Champion
Pereira in his first route, put out the best
wave of the series with 8.83--a magnificient
demonstration of radical 360 air. Torres,
who impressed the judges, imitated the
Venezuelian in a maneuver, but only scored
6.83. The attacks of the Brazilians almost
immediately sent the Tico to 4th position.
During the last 5 minutes, Carvalho managed
sufficient risk to jump to champion with a
combination of 14.56, while Torres urged on
with a 6.51 to bounce into 2nd.
Counting down, a true race ensued between
Torres and Serpa that stayed strick and
managed to bring the Tico a wave that would
ultimately surpass need. It arrived in the
form of a 6.67 and the cementing of the
silver.
Torres has made history before in the
PanAmerican Surfing Games: he holds Costa
Rica's only gold medal--for Juniors in 2005
Peru.
The points Torres earned in Brazil, along
with the higher rankings of the rest of the
Costa Ricans, brought the team its 4th
consecutive podium visit since 2003. In
Ecuador 2003, there were 3rd place, 4th
place 2005 in Peru, and 4th place 2007 in
Chili. Now they rise to 2nd place in Brazil.
"Hopefully, this arrives for all to see this
institution of surfing doing well in Costa
Rica, so that people can support it and see
that it gives a lot of merit to the country.
We arrived incomplete because of the price
of the airline tickets being so expensive,
so I want to be thankful to the surfers we
had and be pleased that they made Costa Rica
the second best surfing nation on the
American continent," exclaimed Ureña.
CHAMPIONS IX PANAMERICAN SURFING GAMES 2009
Open: Ruda Carvalho (Brazil)
Junior: Gabriel Medina (Brazil)
Longboard: Phil Rajzman (Brazil)
Women's: Camila Casia (Brazil)
Bodyboard Female: Isabela Souza (Brazil)
Bodyboard Male: Uri Valadao (Brazil)
NATION'S RANKINGS
1. Brazil 34632 points
2. Costa Rica 24037 points
3. Guadalupe 23646 points
4. Perú 21416 points
5. Venezuela 21336 points
6. Chile 20460 points
7. Argentina 19773 points
8. Ecuador 3040 points
9. Guatemala 2720 points
COSTA RICA RANKINGS
OPEN
Jason Torres 2nd
Jair Pérez 5th
Carlos Muñoz 7th
Isaac Vega 9th
JUNIOR
Carlos Muñoz 6th
Anthony Fillingim 8th
Jordan Hernández 17th
Nataly Bernold 29th
WOMEN'S
Nataly Bernold 5th
Lisbeth Vindas 9th
LONGBOARD
Jason Torres 9th
Esteban Leiton 11th
BODYBOARD Male
Isaac Vega 13th
Anthony Fillimgim 13th
BODYBOARD Female
Lisbeth Vindas 7th
COSTA RICA'S MEDALS AT PANAMERICAN SURFING
GAMES
2003 Salinas, Ecuador:
Team Bronze Medal
Luis Vindas Silver -Junior.
2005 Lima, Perú:
Team Copper Medal
Federico Pilurzu Copper Medal - Open.
Jason Torres Gold Medal - Junior.
Lisbeth Vindas Copper Medal -Open Women's.
2007 Iquique, Chile
Team Copper Medal.
Gilbert Brown Bronze Medal - Open.
2009 Bahía, Brasil
Team Silver Medal.
Jason Torres Silver Medal - Open.
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