The foreign training of Chinese surfing teams has achieved remarkable results. The World Surfing Games has advanced to the top 20.
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 25 (reporter Li Jia) the 2022 World Surfing Games hosted by the World Surfing Federation closed in the United States on the 24th local time. The Chinese surfing team tested the effectiveness of foreign training, ranked 20th in the team of all 51 countries and regions, making significant progress.
Zhou Changcheng, the leader of the Chinese surfing team, said: “in 2019 (World Surfing Games), our national team ranked 27th, the best result for women was 65th, and that for men was 64th. Yang Siqi, a 13-year-old woman, entered the fifth round of the Resurrection competition, and finally ranked 29th. Wang Qixiang, a man, finally ranked 55th, making great progress.”
“This competition has greatly exceeded our expectations. We finished it two days ago, and this time we played on the 6th day.” Zhou Changcheng said, “I really didn’t expect that I thought I could hit 40, but Yang Siqi entered the top 30.”
Yang Siqi also participated in the World Youth Championship in May this year, ranking 37th in the U16 group, which is the best place in the team.
Zhou Changcheng said, “surfers need to be cultivated for a long time and accumulate some experience. After more than four months of foreign training, we have seen the effect. At our current level, we should have better results in next year’s World Youth Championship.”
Surfing teams have been restricted by wave conditions during training in China. There are good waves in China for no more than 3 months and the wave height is about 2 meters, it is far from meeting the training conditions of high-level surfing.
Zhou Changcheng said: “If this project can be trained in places with waves all the time, it will definitely be much better than today’s performance. Four months of external training has improved our technology a lot.”
He said that another reason why the Chinese team has made remarkable progress is the appropriate foreign teachers. At present, the team has invited the head coach of Japan team and American Wade sharp as foreign teachers in Tokyo Olympic Games, and hopes to cooperate for a long time. The Japanese surfing team won the men’s silver medal and the women’s bronze medal in Tokyo Olympic Games.
“The coach’s familiarity with the field, analysis of wave conditions, understanding of opponents and guidance for athletes are all very accurate. He has been a referee in the surfing professional competition for 10 years. He is very clear about the scoring rules and has helped our players a lot. At the same time, he has also trained our coach, which is good for the future development of this project. All of us are learning from him.” Zhou Changcheng said.
This year’s World Surfing Games is also the first qualifying match of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, attracting 246 players from 51 countries and regions, and the US team finally ranked first. America’s JILA Pinkerton won the women’s gold medal, and the Japanese player and the Tokyo Olympic Games runner-up 50 Lan won the men’s gold medal Kanoa. According to the Olympic qualification allocation scheme for surfing projects, the United States Olympic Committee will get a women’s seat in the surfing competition of the Paris Olympic Games, while the Japanese Olympic Committee will get a men’s seat.