| A.M. Costa Rica Sports news local and from the wires |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, Feb. 3, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 25 |
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| Costa
Rica again sweeps Central American surfing tournament |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
For the sixth year in a row Costa Rica was crowned king of the Reef Centroamérica Surfing Games this weekend in front of the Hotel Backyard at Playa Hermosa in Jacó. Dozens of surfers from Panamá, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala came to compete at Playa Hermosa on the central Pacific Coast. Costa Rican surfers finished first in all major surf competition categories including open, open women, junior, boys, longboard and a sub-16 boys category that was new to this year's event. The country’s surf team as a whole finished with over 13,000 |
points,
ahead of second place El Salvador which had just over 8,000 points. The
following standings, in order, were teams from Guatemala, Panamá
and
Nicaragua. —
Dec. 4, 2011
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| Trans-Atlantic boat race winner sets new
course record |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Originally
published Nov. 21
The Virbac-Paprec 3, as expected, arrived in Limón early Friday,
completing the trans-Atlantic sailboat race first out of the field
of competitors and breaking the standing record. The two-man crew of Jean-Pierre Dick and Jérémie Beyou sailed for precisely 15 days, 18 hours and 15 minutes from the Le Havre, France, to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, a distance of more than 4,000 miles. They beat the previous course record set in 2009 by just more than one hour. It is the third time Dick has won the trans-Atlantic race. His team finished as the overall winners as well as the first in their |
class of racing boats, defined
by the International Monohull Open Class
Association. But boats continued to filter in during the weekend, their crews competing for first place positions in their respective categories. Sunday the first multi-hull boat, Actual, arrived to take the top spot in its much diminished field which began with six boats and finished with only two due to inclement weather in the early stages which forced many to leave the race. As racers docked in Limón, they were awaited by festival-goers attending the Wa’apin gathering, which showcased Caribbean arts, crafts, music, food and culture. |
| Olympic
hopeful visits to give pointers
to other gymnasts |
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By Andrew Rulseh Kasper
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Originally
published Nov. 2
On a rare break from her rigorous routine, Costa Rican gymnast Mariana
Sánchez was able to leave her training grounds in the United
States for a brief sojourn in her home country to visit family, friends
and young, aspiring gymnasts.Though her past is highlighted with an ever-growing list of accomplishments and her future aspirations are to be a world-class athlete, Ms. Sánchez' demeanor was everything but braggadocios as she performed a routine with younger girl gymnasts Tuesday in Parque la Sabana. The 15-year-old even seemed a little nervous in the glaring spotlight before the media cameras. But all the nerves disappear when she is focused on her gymnastics routine. Ms. Sánchez excels on the bars, although she said she prefers the floor routines, and her talent has brought herself and Costa Rica plenty of status in the gymnastics world with a career marked by top finishes in junior competitions. Now Ms. Sánchez is focused on competing at the elite level. On a typical day she said she trains roughly eight hours total with school crammed in between workout sessions. Her gym is in Ohio where she lives with the family of another gymnast. Her training is sponsored in part by Banco Nacional. The bank's marketing director, Mario Roa, said his organization would like to see her achieve her dreams and help put Costa Rica on the world map. And one of the primary goals of her strict regimen is just that: an Olympic appearance, either in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro or next year in London. To compete in 2012 before she is 16, Ms. Sánchez needs a special exemption from Olympic officials. “I'm preparing for London,” she said. “But I always have 2016 in Brazil to fall back on.” She also is anxiously anticipating the opportunity to represent her country at the 2013 Central American games to be held in San José, where the taste of a home-soil victory would be sweeter than most. Yet her taste for success has been a long-time coming. Ms. Sánchez has been training stateside for approximately two and a half years, but her desire to compete came long before with her first competition at the age of 4. |
 A.M. Costa Rica/Andrew Rulseh Kasper
Ms. Sánchez balances a
younger gymnast.However, she claims her progression actually started in the womb and laughed that her mother, who owns a gymnasium and was a gymnast herself, was performing the sport while pregnant with her. “She is impressive,” said one girl in the group of predominantly elementary school children as Ms. Sánchez performed a solo floor routine complete with flips and spins. And when the group of girls was asked if they wanted to be like Sánchez they all nodded their heads enthusiastically. Ms. Sánchez offered them this piece of advice. “Never give up and just follow your dreams, even if it's not gymnastics.” |
Costa Rican surfer wins a gold medal |
By
the A.M. Costa rica staff
Costa Rican senior surfer Craig Schieber took first place Sunday, Oct. 23, in the World Masters Surfing Championship in El Salvador. He won in the 50 and older class. The event is sponsored by the International Surfing Association. The gold medal was the first for Costa Rica in the 21 years the country has been participating in the event. he overall winner was the United States with Brazil a close second. Costa Rica was in seventh place. Schieber took costa Rican citizenship 20 years ago, said the surfing organization. |
| Fishing tourney will begin research race for tagged marlin |
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Special to A.M. Costa Rica
Marlin are some of the most magnificent fish in the ocean, but several species are sadly in serious decline. That’s why the International Game Fish Association has partnered with leading scientists from Stanford University to create the Great Marlin Race – a conservation research program which combines the excitement of tournament angling with cutting-edge marine bio-logging science. The part-competition, part-research race has anglers and scientists alike waiting for the 58th annual International Billfish Tournament Sept. 4 to 11 in Puerto Rico. In the days leading up to a billfish tournament, angling teams are invited to sponsor pop-up archival satellite tags to be placed on fish caught and released during the event. Exactly 120 days after each tag is deployed, it automatically releases itself from the fish, and its exact location is determined by earth-orbiting ARGOS satellites. In a given tournament, the tag that surfaces furthest from where it was initially deployed wins the race for that tournament. The Great Marlin Race will last 12 months, encompass several tournaments, and deploy at least 50 tags on a variety of billfish species in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The marlin whose tag travels the furthest of all will be recognized at the annual auction and banquet. “The goal of the program is to learn more about the migration patterns of these magnificent fishes, and how they utilize th |
open ocean habitat,” said Jason Schratwieser, Game fish Association research director, adding: “We also envision giving open access to the tagging data so
that it can be utilized by scientists around the world.” |
| Six new
events added for 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia will have six new events, including women's ski jumping. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge announced in London Tuesday that the board also approved the addition of men's and women's ski halfpipe, mixed relay in biathlon and team events in luge and figure skating. That means an extra 150 athletes will compete in the Russian Black Sea resort city. Women's ski jumping had long campaigned to be in the Winter Games and even lost a legal battle for inclusion at last year's Vancouver Olympics. Rogge said the newest additions "are exciting, entertaining events that perfectly complement the |
existing events on the sports
program" and they "bring added appeal and increase the number of women
participating at the games.'' |
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