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The Costa Rica Surf Federation (FSC) reported the official list of the fourteen Sub-18 athletes that will represent the country at the 2008 Junior World Championship that will take place from May 24 thru June 1 at the town of Seignosse, in southwestern France. Immediately after the National Surfing Circuit (CNS) ended, the Federation’s priorities were to choose the team of surfers under 18 years of age that will represent Costa Rica in the official ISA, International Surf Association, event. The selection of these new national representatives by the technical body of the FSC was based on physical and technical performances by the surfers during the six-month-long National Championships and their ranking positions, as well as criteria based on their capabilities and international experience that the great majority handles well. Junior – Boys under 18 Boys under 16 Among these athletes, we can point out the participation of Jairo Pérez (under 18), Carlos Muñoz (under 16) and Nataly Bernold, who have shown memorable surfing at international presentations as well as national. The country has great hopes in them. Other team members, however, are also expected to do well in France, such as Orlando Solís, José Calderón, Anthony Segura, Mykol Torres, Debbie Zec y Lupe Galluccio, who have already represented Costa Rica on other occasions. The remaining surfers will contend internationally for the first time and the Federation’s Technical Body has great faith in their performances. The team will be accompanied by the Technical Body, which includes Directors Christophe Commarieu, Randall Chávez and Bárbara Campos. Experienced surfer Diego Naranjo will be the Technical Director and will also substitute José Ureña, President and Technical Director of the team that for family reasons will not be able to travel. Great Support The Jacó Regional Committee alone will be sponsoring 70% of the air tickets for the surfers that live in that region. The round ticket costs about US$ 1,300. In such a way, this Committee is once again setting an example for the remaining regions that have athletes in the team, because they bet on Costa Rica’s surfing results. Also, the Sports Institute of Costa Rica (ICODER for its acronym in Spanish) has sponsored the delegation by means of covering 50% of the costs of room and board for our athletes. International Training As for pre-competition training, thanks to the good relations between Christophe Commarieu, Director of the Surf Federation, and the French Federation, a bi-national competition with France and Costa Rica has been scheduled a week before the World Championship. The French team is currently fourth in the Junior ranking, and are clearly one of the favorites to win the Hossegor title, mainly due to their local capacity. Tahiti’s team is to confirm if they will also participate in this pre-competition which will also be excellent for our athletes since they also are a world surfing force. The French Surfing Federation will receive the “ticos” with a great parade, that will march towards the Town Hall were the Mayor will receive them and wish success to all competitors. During this competition, the Costa Rican surfers will have to overcome a difficult obstacle: cold water. Expected climate for the days of competition is of 14-18 degrees Centigrade with the water at 5 degrees. During the past Costa Rican participation at the 2007 World Junior Championship in Portugal, with similar environmental and water temperatures, the team managed to place themselves in 14th position. According to José Ureña, President of the Federation for this new challenge, the hopes are to do better than last time and be among the best 10 teams. Portugal 2007 had talented Carlos Muñoz with a great performance. He was selected as the best under 16 athlete among Iberian and Latin American competitors. A lot more is expected this year from the Esterillos-born surfer. Ureña declared that “participating in a world junior championship is of great importance to the future of surfing in Costa Rica. At the present time, the level of our Juniors is very high and we must explore this by sending them to international competitions such as this”. Thanks to state-of-the-art web technology, ISA will make available to the whole world, live and free-of-charge, a broadcast of the competition. The link can be found in the webpage of the Costa Rican Federation www.surfingcr.net – where all de details of the country’s participation will be reported and in which the national calendar with dates and time of competitions will be posted.
About International Surfing Association
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