France Rides Dual SUP Surfing Golds to Historic Team World Title

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Justine Dupont and Benoit Carpentier sweep SUP Surfing Gold Medals, lead team France to first-ever Team Gold Medal in event

Italy’s Airton Cozzolino earns SUP Surfing Silver to lead Italy to first-ever podium finish with Team Copper Medal 

Brazil’s Alex Salazar earns Men’s Bronze, Japan’s Riki Horikoshi earns Copper

Shakira Westdorp’s (AUS) three-year Gold streak comes to an end with Women’s Silver Medal

Spain’s Iballa Ruano Moreno earns Women’s Bronze, Peru’s Vania Torres earns Copper

Lasting legacy left for SUP and Surfing in El Salvador

Justine Dupont and Benoit Carpentier completed a fairy tale ending for Team France at the 2019 Surf City El Salvador ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championship by taking the Women’s and Men’s SUP Surfing Gold Medals, resulting in an overall Gold for Team France.

Team France celebrates their breakthrough performance, the first Gold Medal for their nation in the event’s eight-year history. Photo: ISA / Ben Reed
Team France celebrates their breakthrough performance, the first Gold Medal for their nation in the event’s eight-year history. Photo: ISA / Ben Reed

The Gold for France is their first in the eight-year history of the event, after coming up short with the Silver Medal on two occasions (2016 and 2017). 

Through the week of SUP Racing, SUP Surfing, and Paddeboard Racing, Team France placed an athlete on all but one podium, amassing 15 medals, including four Golds.

Aside from the SUP Surfing Golds earned by Dupont and Carpentier, France also proved strong in the Technical Racing where Titouan Puyo took the Men’s SUP Gold and Julen Marticorena the Men’s Paddleboard Gold.

Following France in the Team Rankings was Team Spain with the Silver Medal, Team USA with Bronze, and Team Italy with Copper.

“It feels unreal,” said Dupont. “I have such a great team behind me.

“I’ve finished runner up five times across my different surfing disciplines, so this is great to finally be crowned World Champion in SUP Surfing.”

France’s Justine Dupont shows she can do it all from big wave surfing, shortboard, longboard, and SUP Surfing, earning the Women’s SUP Surfing Gold. Photo: ISA / Ben Reed
France’s Justine Dupont shows she can do it all from big wave surfing, shortboard, longboard, and SUP Surfing, earning the Women’s SUP Surfing Gold. Photo: ISA / Ben Reed

Carpentier followed:

“I am over the moon right now. This is my first international win and doing it here with the whole French team is amazing. 

“I knew when [Cozzolino] passed me at the end of the heat that I was going to smash the next wave and take the Gold back.”

Italy’s Airton Cozzolino continued his inspired surfing as one of the surprise performers during his first appearance in the World Championship. Cozzolino finished with the Men’s SUP Surfing Silver Medal, which was just enough to nudge Team Italy ahead of Team Brazil for a spot on the podium with the Copper Medal.

Rounding out the Men’s podium were Brazil’s Alex Salazar with Bronze and Japan’s Riki Horikoshi with Copper.

France’s Benoit Carpentier consistently put on the top performances during each day of competition, capping it off with a Gold Medal on Finals day. Photo: ISA / Sean Evans
France’s Benoit Carpentier consistently put on the top performances during each day of competition, capping it off with a Gold Medal on Finals day. Photo: ISA / Sean Evans

Shakira Westdorp’s (AUS) reign atop Women’s SUP Surfing finally came to an end due to the strong surfing of Dupont. After earning Gold for the previous three years, Westdorp came up just short and earned the Silver Medal. 

Spain’s Iballa Ruano Moreno followed with the Women’s SUP Surfing Bronze and Peru’s Panamerican Silver Medalist, Vania Torres, earned the Copper. 

The success of the 2019 edition of the ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championship has left a strong, lasting legacy in El Salvador. A pathway has been created for Salvadorian athletes to continue competing at an international level, while President Nayib Bukele’s ‘Surf City’ campaign has displayed the beauty of El Salvador to the visiting delegations and global viewers from all over the world. 

France’s Benoit Carpentier with his first international event win, coming in the SUP Surfing’s World Championship. Photo: ISA / Ben Reed
France’s Benoit Carpentier with his first international event win, coming in the SUP Surfing’s World Championship. Photo: ISA / Ben Reed

The eighth day of competition at El Sunzal featured the Men’s and Women’s SUP Surfing Finals.

A strong south swell continued to grace the cobblestone point with quality waves blown by an offshore wind in the morning that turned onshore later in the day.

After a morning of Main Event and Repechage Rounds, the Women’s Grand Final took to the water first. 

Westdorp looked primed to earn her fourth Gold Medal in a row, earning a strong 8.5 single wave score. 

However, Westdorp was not able to find an equally strong back-up score, and Dupont surged ahead at the end of the heat to surpass Westdorp’s total by just three-tenths of a point.

Dupont, who is the Chair of the ISA Athletes’ Commission and recently rode what is speculated to be the biggest wave for a woman ever at Nazare, Portugal, showed her prowess in all disciplines of surfing and earned her first SUP Surfing Gold. 

Justine Dupont on her way to the top of Women’s SUP Surfing. Photo: ISA / Sean Evans
Justine Dupont on her way to the top of Women’s SUP Surfing. Photo: ISA / Sean Evans

The Men’s Grand Final followed with Carpentier intent on earning a second Gold on the day for Team France. 

Carpentier was surpassed by Italy’s Cozzolino, however he bounced back in the final 90 seconds of the heat with the Final’s highest wave score yet with 8.9 points.

The last minute wave of Carpentier completed the perfect ending for Team France and cemented their position atop the team podium. 

ISA President Fernando Aguerre said:

“We could not have asked for a better 2019 edition for the ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championship. El Salvador has been a warm, welcoming host with a picturesque coastline and the world’s best brought their top performances in the premiere World Championship for SUP. 

“There is no doubt that StandUp Paddle is a sport born from surfing and embedded in the surfing culture. The strong performances and positive athlete feedback that we experienced this week have further reinforced this fact.

“After historic inclusion in the Lima 2019 Pan Am Games, this edition of the World Championship has proved to be another steppingstone in the global growth and development of the sport that we hope will one day lead StandUp Paddle to the program of the Olympic Games.”

Final results

Men’s SUP Surfing
Gold – Benoit Carpentier (FRA)
Silver – Airton Cozzolino (ITA)
Bronze – Alex Salazar (BRA)
Copper – Riki Horikoshi (JPN)

Women’s SUP Surfing
Gold – Justine Dupont (FRA)
Silver – Shakira Westdorp (AUS)
Bronze – Iballa Ruano Moreno (ESP)
Copper – Vania Torres (PER)

Team Ranking
Gold – France
Silver – Spain
Bronze – USA
Copper – Italy
5 – Brazil
6 – Japan
7 – Argentina
8 – South Africa
9 – Guatemala
10 – Peru 

View full team rankings and results here.

About the International Surfing Association:

The International Surfing Association (ISA), founded in 1964, is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the World Governing Authority for Surfing. The ISA governs and defines Surfing as Shortboard, Longboard & Bodyboarding, StandUp Paddle (SUP) Racing and Surfing, Para-Surfing, Bodysurfing, Wakesurfing, and all other wave riding activities on any type of waves, and on flat water using wave riding equipment. The ISA crowned its first Men’s and Women’s World Champions in 1964. It crowned the first Big Wave World Champion in 1965; World Junior Champion in 1980; World Kneeboard Champions in 1982; World Longboard Surfing and World Bodyboard Champions in 1988; World Tandem Surfing Champions in 2006; World Masters Champions in 2007; World StandUp Paddle (SUP, both surfing and racing) and Paddleboard Champions in 2012; and World Adaptive Surfing Champions in 2015.

ISA membership includes the surfing National Federations of 108 countries on five continents. The ISA is presided over by Fernando Aguerre (ARG). The Executive Committee includes four Vice-Presidents Karín Sierralta (PER), Kirsty Coventry (ZIM), Casper Steinfath (DEN) and Barbara Kendall (NZL), Athletes’ Commission Chair Justine Dupont (FRA), Regular Members Atsushi Sakai (JPN) and Jean Luc Arassus (FRA) and ISA Executive Director Robert Fasulo as Ex-officio Member.

Its headquarters are located in La Jolla, California (USA).

For more information, please visit www.isasurf.org

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