The importance of achieving a good result in a world championship packed with CT riders
Adrenaline Rush presents the news of the day.
The 2019 World Surfing Games will be packed with stars from the Championship Tour.
To talk about Costa Rica in an International Surfing Association (ISA) World Surfing Championship, it is inevitable to bring up memories of that June of 2015 in Popoyo Beach, Nicaragua, when a tricolor team and the McGonagle brothers made Costa Rica become World Team Champion, in addition to the Men's and Women's Championship and Runner-up respectively.
Many things have changed, and back then the inclusion of World Surf League (WSL) surfers in the World Games was not allowed. However, surfing has taken on a new lease of life, and its inclusion as an Olympic discipline has led to various changes in the qualification process for Tokyo 2020.
One of these modifications is the participation of CTs in the 2019 and 2020 world championships, which is now mandatory if you wish to attend the games, and countries with surfers on the Championship Tour have called their best figures.
Our country has held nothing back for this world championship and has called up its main figures in search of improving the current top 12 achieved in the last world championship.
These 2019 World Surfing Games do not provide qualification for the American continent; however, it is very important to obtain good results for the qualification of the next world championship, which will provide 4 male and 6 female places.
But why is it really important to achieve a good ranking in this World Championship? First of all, it would position our country as outstanding in a competition that will feature names like Kelly Slater (USA), Gabriel Medina (BRA), Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), among others. Second, it would help ensure that our opponents in the early rounds of the 2020 World Games aren't from countries with top athletes, potentially giving us a better path in those games.
"Our goal is to field a strong team and secure a good position so we can advance as a group as possible next year. It will be a very competitive world championship, giving us the opportunity to assess the surfers' level. We are already working with the Olympic Committee to develop a plan and ensure our team is at 100% for next year's qualifier," stated Randall Chaves, president of the Costa Rican Surfing Federation.
There is no doubt that the competition will be arduous and extremely demanding in a world championship that will go down in history as one of the most CT-heavy world championships, a situation that gives Costa Rica an opportunity to measure its strength against the best surfers in the world and a parameter of what we are really made of.