Mexico To Attend The Reef Isa World Surfing Games

PANAMA 2013
Translation: Heido Sundstrom

The 2013 Reef ISA World Surfing Games will take place between May 4th – 12th at Santa Catalina Beach in Panama, bringing the games back to these waters for a second time since the last event in 2011 (no country requested to host the games in 2012). This year, with the assistance of the President of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, and Salo Shamah of the Ministry of Tourism, the government is pledging their full support to the 2013 World Championship.

MEDALS AND TROPHIES
It is expected that roughly twenty to twenty-five nations will compete in Santa Catalina for individual medals and three trophies.

* The Fernando Aguerre World Champion Team Trophy: this will be the first year in a long time that the trophy will be named and donated by the President of the ISA and will be awarded to the winner. Aguerre was elected for the first time in 1994 and has been re-elected seven times since then.

* The President’s Trophy of the International Olympic Committee will be awarded to the Champion Team of the Reef ISA World Surfing Games.

* Individual Gold Medals

* In addition, to celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the discovery of the Pacific Ocean during the colonial period by the conquistador Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, the World Champion Team will be awarded the “Copa V Centenario Del Descubrimiento Del Oceano Pacifico,” or 5th Century Cup of the Discovery of the Pacific Ocean.

The ISA World Surfing Games will bring together the best surfers from around the world to compete in the Men’s and Women’s Open Category, awarding individual medals for gold, silver, bronze and copper. The defending champions of the World Surfing Games include: Santiago Muñiz of Argentina (Gold Medalist in the Men’s Open Category) and Canelle Bullard of France (Gold Medalist in the Women’s Open Category), as well as the former champion team from Australia.

THE MEXICAN TEAM
The Mexican team is comprised of this country’s top surfers from around the Republic. First, we have Dylan Southworth, a world-class competitor who’s expected to lead the team in points. Then there’s Julio, who hasn’t competed in many international contests but has a lot of potential to fulfill an excellent role.

“Yuco” Trujillo is another world-class competitor expected to rebound and achieve good results at the competition. Also on the team is Adrian, who showed us a solid performance in the Central American contest some years ago and, in his most recent events, he has been among the top four places. For Leila, this will be her first World Championship. She has many years of surfing in Puerto Escondido under her belt and now in Sayulita, which boasts of some very good local surfers. We’re eager to see her compete, as she is the current National Champion and is sure to put on a show. Then we have Pamela, who has competed in juvenile world championships around the globe.

This will be her eighth World Championship and we hope to see her bring that experience to the team in order to gain a good spot in the rankings and move up from fifteenth place. Their mission is to be among the top ten spots in the world.

Dylan Southworth – Nayarit
Julio Quiñonez – Colima
Jose Manuel Yuco Trujillo – Guerrero
Adrian Rodriguez – Nayarit
Pamela Verboonen – Guerrero
Leila Takeda – Oaxaca
Team Manager – Juan Muñoz

The top seven nations on the table will qualify for an invitation for the 2014 ISA China Cup, part of the ISA Hainan Wanning Riyue Bay International Surfing Festival, along with the host-team, China.

To see the video of the event’s presentation, visit the ISA official website: www.isawsg.com, where you’ll find photos, videos and a live broadcast of the event, which will kick of on Saturday, May 4th with the Opening Ceremony. The competition officially begins on Sunday, May 5th.