Team Peru has conquered the inaugural 2012 Bolivarian Beach Games, in Punta Rocas, Peru. The Peruvian surfers won seven out of eight gold medals in the surf competitions.
Men's and Women's Shortboard, Men's and Women's SUP Surfing, Men's SUP Racing, Longboard and Bodyboard. The Peruvian roster of wave riders blasted opponents and proved it's one of the strongest nations in the world, when it comes to ocean boardsports.
The only medal that the local team didn't achieve was the ISA Aloha Cup, a tag team relay competition, which was won by El Salvador, one of the invited teams that was not one of the Bolivarian countries that make up the core nations in these multi-sport games.
"The boys showed off what they are capable of doing. I'm really happy for all the team. We are a big family," said Karlo Mejia, coach of the El Salvador team, to the local press.
"Competing here in Peru has been real difficult for us because we are not used to this cool weather. This win goes to all the seven million Salvadorians back home".
This is the first Surfing Gold Medal ever for El Salvador, who defeated the teams from Ecuador, Venezuela and the 2010 (ISA Open) and 2011 (ISA Junior) World Champions, Peru. The team was formed by Porfirio Miranda, Noemi Centeno, Israel Arenivar and Cristian Martinez.
Gabriel Villarán (Peru), a former medalist at the ISA World Surfing Games, won the Gold in the Open Men division against Guillermo Satt (Chile), Cristobal de Col (Peru) and Miguel Tudela (Peru) in the final.
The Bodyboard winner was Cesar Bauer (Peru), who defeated Bryan Medina (Chile), Jose Crisanto (Venezuela) and Pascual Silverio (Dominican Republic).