Costa Rica Surfers Met
with Cold Shoulder in
Chile
Costaricapages.com
The Costa Rican National
Surf Team was met with
threats and was actually
forced out of the water
when they attempted to
warm up for the 8th
annual Panamerican Surf
Games 2007 in Iquique,
Chile this morning.
Thirty minutes after
being told he could not
enter the water, Jason
Torres, a Jacé native
and reigning champion of
the Junior Panamerican
Surf Games, was the
first Costa Rican to try
and enter the water. The
Chilean team followed
and prohibited him from
catching a wave,
according to Christophe
Commarieu, a delegate of
the Costa Rica Surf
Federation.
“After Jason, it was
Lisbeth [Vindas] and
Nataly [Bernold]’s turn,
but they were equally
threatened and had to
get out of the water, as
did Jairo [Pérez]”,
Commaireu said.
Team members from Chile
spit in Pérez’s face and
threatened to hit Torres
and Diego Naranjo. When
Carlos Muñoz tried to
catch a wave, the
Chilean team would
interfere and get in his
way.
Teams from Ecuador,
Venezuela and Argentina
were met with a similar
response from the
Chilean national team,
whose members made
threats to all four
teams when they tried to
enter the water during
their morning practice.
The Chileans occupied
the only point at which
the waves were good for
surfing early in the
morning and refused to
move. Commarieu said
that the four teams that
had to put up with such
behavior would be filing
a formal complaint.
Perez commented that he
thought the Chileans
wanted to make the teams
lose their concentration
and begin the tournament
scared of the waves.
The Costa Rican team
arrived in Chile at noon
on Thursday and was able
to train that afternoon.
They were able get some
training in this morning
and again this
afternoon. The
Panamerican Surf Games
is the last
international team
competition of 2007 and
will be held from Nov. 3
to Nov. 11 |
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