Toni Silvagni clinches Longboard title at Billabong ISA World Surfing Games 2011
The Longboard finals of Billabong International Surfing Association (ISA) World Surfing Games went down at Playa Venao in Panama on Saturday, July 2nd.
After a really intense four-way battle, America’s Toni Silvagni emerged triumphant to earn the gold medal for his country. Australia’s Harley Ingelby took runner-up place to secure silver, while Peru’s Piccolo Clemente finished in third to take home a bronze
medal. France’s Antoine Delpero rounded out the bottom position to earn a copper medal for his country.
The surfing conditions at the primary event turned out to be really good, with two-to-four foot clean waves breaking at the beach. With mother-nature cooperating with the competition on the last day, one could not have hoped for a better climax to what had
been an intense week long longboard battle.
America had been deprived of a Longboard gold medal ever since Geoff Moysa earned one for Team USA in 1996. With not much to cheer about since then, it seemed that the Americans had been tamed once and for all.
However, after 15 years of wait, the gold returned to the American soil, thanks to the outstanding performance by Silvagni. His consistency and skills allowed to him to survive the qualifying rounds and make his place in the finals, where he was pitted against
the likes of Ingelby, Clemente and Delpero in an intense final heat.
As the battle commenced, the American got down to business right away and locked a wave to throw done a string of spectacular manoeuvres ans. Earning 8.73 points for the effort, he managed to attain an early lead. He soon earned outstanding score of 8.40
to widen the gap between him and his competitors. Holding on to the lead till the end, he ended up finishing with a convincing victory.
Talking to the media after the results were announced, a thrilled Silvagni said, “I stayed focused the whole contest, listening to everything my coach had to say—that was key. This is the best win of my entire life. I’ve being training hard, surfing every
single day, and I’m very, very happy. I want to say thanks to everyone from the United States, as well as my mom, my whole family and friends for their support. This is great!”
Ingelby put up a commendable fight, but his efforts were futile as far as earning the top spot was concerned. Collecting 8.33 off his first wave halfway through the heat and adding an additional 8.37 points to his account in the final minutes, he was able
to get close to Silvagni but not past him.
Clemente only managed to grab two waves in total during the heat. His first wave earned him a relatively disappointing 6.40, but he managed to earn the highest single-wave score of the heat, 8.37, from his second wave. Finishing with a heat-total of 15.37
points, he clinched the bronze medal for his country.
Delpero finished in fourth position after collecting an identical score of 7.43 off his two best waves. While the performance was not that disappointing, it seemed inadequate in front of the other surfer’s performance during the final battle.
With the curse finally broken, maybe America will start getting more gold medals instead of losing them to the Australian, Brazilians and Hawaiians for over a decade.
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