Costa Rica is sending its ‘A’ Team to the Pan-American Surfing Games
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By Lois Solano.
Brisa Hennessy premiered at the Costa Rica National Team with gold and bronze medals.
Anthony Fillingim takes the silver medal in the Open.
Costa Rica closed fourth among the nations of America.
With four medals he closed Costa Rica in a Pan-American games full of controversy but with a good ending for the ethical representation.
With an incredible first participation in the National Team, Brisa Hennessy put his mark when leaving the gold of the Pan American in Lima. There are 2000 points of the Open and Longboard with which Brisa helped the ranking of Costa Rica by countries and the right to two places in the Women’s Open category and one in Longboard in the Pan-American Games Lima 2019.
The Women’s Open results were Brisa Hennessy 9CRI) 14.5, Dominic Barona (ECU) 14.17, Daniella Rosas (PER) 10.4 and Chelsea Tuach (BAR) 8.47. And in women’s Longboard: Chloe Gama (BRA) 15.34, Atalanta Batista (BRA) 12.47
“It was so special to take me the gold but the most special thing was being able to be on the Costa Rica National Team; The energy, the vibes and the Pura Vida of the team is so strong and they are from the most incredible people I have ever met, I feel so lucky to be able to share, surf and compete with them and be able to represent beautiful Costa Rica. I am very grateful, thank you all in Costa Rica for all your support. This is for you,” said Brisa Henessy.
On the other hand, the wave that has best awarded the National Champion Anthony Fillingim, today gave him his second silver medal, this time in the Pan American, same that precedes the one obtained in the ISA World Cup 2014 in this same scenario.
The Final was between the Venezuelan Francisco Bellorín who left the gold, Anthony Fillingim, the Peruvian Alonso Correa who tool the bronze medal and the Mexican Johny Corzo who was left the copper.
“It was a very full day of competition, I managed to reach the Final Open, today I had four series in which I managed to advance from first to the Final. I managed to take the silver medal to Costa Rica once again and bring to Costa Rica this result that is so important since it gives us two passes to Lima 2019 and that was the mission. I’m proud of everything we’ve done. Many thanks to the Olympic Committee, the Surf Federation and the ICODER for the support and everything they have done for us. Congratulations to Brisa who managed to take the gold, “said Anthony Fillingim.
The classification of two men’s Open to Lima depended punctually on the three cards that Costa Rica had in this contest, instead of the four representations to which he was entitled as well as the other countries.
Nothing could be done, not even by legal means to give Costa Rica the right to compete on equal terms, so the Ticos committed themselves and took the tricolor flag to the finals at the hands of the National Champion Anthony Fillingim and after a dubious score awarded to Noe Mar McGonagle who despite getting the highest wave of the event did not advance to the Final.
The excellent performance of Noe Mar was surpassed only by the finger of the judges who did not know how to advance two Ticos and leave out the two hosts who saw very complicated the series of quarterfinals against the fine strategy of the selection with two Ticos in the same Semifinal and under the command of coach Jim Hogan.
Brisa Hennessy also ran the Longboard Final in which she finished third with a Bronze medal and a place for Costa Rica in that division in Lima 2019.
In addition, Valeria Salustri obtained the seventh place in the Final Sup Race or table of races, the National Champion managed to secure a position in Lima 2019 in its category. Salustri had already won a bronze medal at the 2016 Pan-American Games on that same beach.
Jim Hogan, the coach responsible for the national teams said: “We finished with an incredible result, Brisa left the gold and bronze in Longboard, Anthony the silver, Valeria reached seventh in his career. In general the team did really well, even with one less surfer what affects us in the end looking for the medal as a team, but the final result was excellent, incredible surfing by Costa Rica.” said coach Jim Hogan.
The complete table of positions will be published when the Panamerican organization officially does it, meanwhile Costa Rica will continue thinking about an Olympic dream that is getting closer.
