Last week kawaii aichi went to see the impressive UR ISA World Surfing Games 2018 (WSG) in Tahara City. For seven days some of the best international surfers competed in order to win the individual world title and by nations.
About the ISA World Surfing Games
The ISA World Surfing Games is a surfing competition organized by the International Surfing Association (ISA). ISA is among the International Federations (IF) recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and aims to make surfing an Olympic sport.
The world competition (WSG) was held for the first time in 1964, and these games have been held every year in different parts of the world, becoming recognized as the “Surf World Cup” for which all surfers aspire.
This year Japan is the host of the games for the first time in 28 years, since the 13th World Surfing Games in 1990, held in Tahara City.
Competition and results
The ISA World Surfing Games 2018 began with the men’s division competition. It was a very close competition in which the Argentine Santiago Muñiz was crowned with the gold medal, his second title after winning the gold in the 2011 edition in Panama. This gold medal guarantees Muñiz a place at the Pan American Games in Lima 2019, and a qualifying position for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
That same day, Kanoa Igarashi and Shun Murakami, members of the Japanese team won the silver and copper medals. Both won the first WSG medals for the Japan team.
The next competition that was held the next day was the Aloha Cup. The ISA Aloha Cup is a unique relay race where the eight best teams of the previous edition of the ISA World Surfing Games meet. The teams are formed by four surfers: 2 women and 2 men. Each one of them has to surf three waves in 45 minutes so that all the scores add up. Every surfer returns to the beach to pass the relay to the next surfer. In this competition, the Spanish team won the Gold Medal, Japan Silver, Costa Rica the Bronze and United States the Copper.
Finally, the women’s division competition was held on the last day of the ISA World Surfing Games. This competition was dominated magnificently by the Australian, Sally Fitzgibbons, who managed to get the Gold Medal. Followed by Paige Hareb (New Zealand) with the Silver Medal, Bronze for Bianca Buitendag (South Africa) and Copper for Summer Macedo (USA). UU.).
This edition of the ISA World Surfing Games 2018 has shown the great growth of the Japanese team, and it has officially confirmed it as a powerful team in the international surfing scene. In the words of ISA President, Fernando Aguerre. “Japan has a strong and rich surf culture and the moment could not be better for them to win Gold with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games that are fast approaching.”
About Tahara
In a post later we will tell you more about this beautiful city. For the moment here is the link to the Tahara Tourism website and a video presentation of the city made by the ISA team.
