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Gold Medal Winners: South Africa’s Tristan Roberts In Open Men’s, Portugal’s Teresa Almeida In Open Women’s, Chile’s Yoshua Toledo In Junior Boys U-18, Peru’s Carolina Botteri In Junior Girls U-18 And France’s Amaury Lavernhe In Dropknee. World Team Champion Will Be Announced After The ISA Aloha Cup Finals On Saturday.
Following six intense days of great waves and exciting Bodyboarding performances, the individual Champions of the 2014 ISA World Bodyboard Championship were crowned in Iquique, Chile.
Chile made history by winning it’s first ever ISA Gold Medal thanks to the 17 year old, Yoshua Toledo, who won Gold in Junior Boys U-18.
The remainder of the individual Gold Medal winners were: South Africa’s Tristan Roberts in Open Men’s, Portugal’s Teresa Almeida in Open Women’s, Peru’s Carolina Botteri in Junior Girls U-18 and France’s Amaury Lavernhe in Dropknee.
The World Team Champion will be announced after the ISA Aloha Cup Finals on Saturday during the Closing Ceremony. All the medalists will be awarded with the Gold, Silver, Bronze and Copper Medals.
“Congratulations to all of the individual winners of the 2014 ISA World Championship,” remarked ISA President Fernando Aguerre. “I am especially proud of the host country, Chile, who won its first ever ISA Gold Medal. This historic accomplishment of our Chilean friends, shows the ability of new surfing nations to raise to the top of the world, as part of the ISA’s mission of developing surfing globally. Chile is a country with some of the best waves in the world and this achievement is a direct result of the efforts made by the Chilean Surfing Federation in its path to develop surfing in their country.”
It was a hard fought day for many of the competitors, who surfed as many as three times to advance to the Final through the Repechage rounds.
The excellent waves of Iquique continued. Though the size dropped from the past two days to 3-5ft, the shape of the wave was clean, allowing for deep barrel rides, critical turns and airs.
The first Gold Medalist crowned was France’s Amaury Lavernhe, who won the Gold Medal in Dropknee. Lavernhe earned a 13.07 narrowly defeating Peru’s Silver Medalist Cesar Bauer who also earned a 13.07. Due to the Frenchman’s higher individual wave score, he earned the Gold. In third followed South Africa’s Bronze Medalist Iain Campbell (9.60) and Venezuela’s Copper Medalist Angelo Freda (9.06.)
Amaury Lavernhe commented, “It was team work. I was out there by myself but with all the guys at the beach screaming and singing, so I’m happy. I’ve been doing a lot of Dropknee in the last two months, so I’m very stoked with the result. This is a big day for Bodyboarding and for the ISA! Thanks to all the people that support me and support France!”
Next up was the Junior Girls U-18, where Peru’s Carolina Botteri (13.20) won the Gold Medal, defeating Chile’s Silver Medalist Anai Veliz (12.37), Portugal’s Bronze Medalist Madalena Guerra (9.94) and Brazil’s Yumi Vasconcellos.
Carolina Botteri commented, “I’m very happy and excited! Thanks to all my team, my coach and my team manager for their support. This is a dream come true. I have trained a lot and here’s the result.”
Following was the Junior Boys U-18, where Chile’s Yoshua dominated the heat earning an impressive 15.63 and winning the Gold Medal. The Chilean defeated South Africa’s Silver Medalist Tristan Roberts (13.77), Brazil’s Bronze Medalist Socrates Santana (11.60) and Portugal’s Copper Medalist Miguel Adao (11.33).
Yoshua Santana commented, “It was a hard heat, and then at the last minute I found those waves were I had that barrel, ARS (Aerial Roll Spinner) followed by a rollo. Thanks to all of the Chileans here for their support!”
On the Women’s side, Portugal’s Teresa Almeida (12.83) won the Open Women’s Gold Medal, defeating the defending Champion Brazil’s Neymara Carvalho (8.66), who won the Silver Medal, France’s Bronze Medalist Anne Cecile Lacoste (8.10) and Venezuela’s Yuleiner Gonzalez (6.97).
Teresa Almeida commented, “I still don’t believe that I won, but I’m really happy. My strategy was to get a good wave fast to control the heat and choose the best waves. Thanks to everyone at home for their support!”
In the last Final of the day, South Africa’s Tristan Roberts won the Open Men’s Gold Medal, defeating France’s Silver Medalist Amaury Lavernhe, Chile’s Bronze Medalist Gabriel Brantes and France’s Copper Medalist Jeremy Arnoux.
Tristan Roberts commented, “Words cannot describe how I feel right now. I was down after losing my Junior title in the last minutes, so I went to this heat and gave it all, and it paid off. I’m very happy! Thanks to all the South Africans back home for all your messages, and all the South African team for their support.”
For a full list of today’s results, click here: http://isaworlds.com/bodyboarding/2014/results/
The 2014 ISA World Bodyboard Championship resumes Saturday with the final day of competition at 1:00pm (local time) in Iquique, Chile, with the ISA Aloha Cup, a tag-team relay competition. Each team is made up of five athletes and every bodyboarder is scored on two waves.
Competition Schedule:
1:00pm ISA Aloha Cup Semifinal 1
2:15pm ISA Aloha Cup Semifinal 2
3:45pm ISA Aloha Cup Final
5:30pm Closing Ceremony
The live webcast of the entire 2014 ISA World Bodyboard Championship is available on www.isawbc.com