SURFING: The Thailand national surfing team will be pitting their skills against the world’s best at the 2023 Surf City El Salvador International Surfing Association (ISA) World Surfing Games (WSG), which begins today (May 30).
National Thai team members competing for national pride, gold medals and Olympic qualification include Phuket resident Annissa Flynn, Isabel Fehick, Sitiphong Henry Chapman and Nattakorn Saeiao.
The team, joined by coaches Mr Somphon and Pirapon Lila Settakul, left Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on Friday (May 26) for the long trip to central America, arriving the following day.
The team immediately took to a vigorous training session, taking to the waves from 6:30am to 10am local time on Sunday morning.
They then retreated to their accommodation to analyse and review video footage of their performances in an effort to fine tune before competition beings, before spending the rest of the day acclimatising to the local environment.
The El Salvador 2023 WSG, which runs until June 7, allows competitors to either qualify directtly or accumulate points for qualification at a later stage for both the 2024 Olympics in Paris and the 2023 ANOC World Beach Games in Bali, Indonesia.
Four men and four women from the four continents of Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania will directly qualify for the Paris Olympics through the 2023 WSG.
The top five men and women representing the Americas will qualify for a separate qualifying event, Santiago 2023, with the winners of that competition clinching Olympics slots in due course.
Competition will be fierce with the likes of ISA defending champion Kanoa Igarashi of Japan and three-time winner Sally Fitzgibbons of Australia competing. A record 297 athletes, representing a groundbreaking 64 nations, will be taking part.
The Thai team is supported by the National Sports Development Fund, Thailand Sports, Surfing Board Association of Thailand and their sportswear is sponsored by Ripcurl Thailand.
