The Board of Directors of Surfing South Africa has confirmed the names of the surfers who have been selected to represent South Africa at the 2019 ISA World Adaptive Surfing Championships.
Although the venue and dates of the event have not been confirmed by the International Surfing Association as yet, the fifth edition of this important tournament will probably be held in California in early December.
This is the strongest and most comprehensive team ever selected for the event. It is headed up by three team members who have all won medals in the AS1 (Stand) category at previous ISA World Championship.
Antony Smyth, who won silver in 2015, gold in 2016 and silver in 2017, is the current AS1 World Champion having won his second gold in California last year. Grace Anderson won silver in 2018 and Jean- Paul Veaudry is a former bronze medal winner in this category.
The experienced Daniel Nel, who recently won a medal and the hearts of many at an adaptive surfing event in Bali, will compete in the AS4 prone division and new cap Tracy McKay is included in the team in the AS4 women’s division.
New caps Jared Sacks and Sabelo Ngema have qualified in the AS-V1 and AS- V1B3 divisions (Blind and Visually Impaired) while Albert Rust will earn cap number three in the AS5 (Prone assist). Noluthando Makalima wins her first cap in the AS5 Women’s Division.
Douglas Hendrikx will become the first South African to participate in the AS3 (Sit) division with new caps Anton Wiersma and Donovan Kanes giving South Africa representation in the AS2 (Kneel) category for the first time.
The Team Manager is Julia Van Zyl and the coaches are Tasha Mentasti and Leon Van Zyl.
Now that the team has been announced the hard work of raising the funds required to travel to the USA begins in earnest. Each team member is required to pay their own way to the event and while Adaptive Surfing South Africa and the national body, Surfing South Africa, are hoping to assist with some of the expenses, each team member will be looking to raise about R30000 each.
Antony Smyth 2018 AS1 World Champion. Photo Grant/ISA
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