BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- 14-year-old Yang Siqi, the most promising female surfer in China, put on an impressive performance at the World Surfing Games (WSG), which ended on Wednesday at Surf City in El Salvador as a qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
China sent a very young all-female team to the competition, featuring Yang and her peers Jin Shuhan and Wu Yaomei in the squad. Aiming to secure an Olympic ticket, the three youngsters paid big efforts as they left China in January and had trained abroad for more than five months.
Yang reached the fifth-round repechage, ranking 31st of over 130 female surfers. She delivered some amazing surfs in the competition and caught the attention from the International Surfing Association (ISA).
"One of the standout performances of the day came from China's Siqi Yang. Having competed in her first WSG in Huntington Beach in September 2022, the improvement of Yang's surfing in just eight months is impressive," read an article released on the ISA website on June 1.
"While she was able to collect a single 6.00 ride in Huntington Beach, Yang easily won her Main Round 1 heat today with a pair of 6's, looking like she still has plenty more to give," it added.
Yang collected 12.17 points and ranked first in her group at the Main Round 1 heat. She managed to reach the fifth-round repechage, but failed to go further.
According to the qualification system for the Paris 2024, the 2023 World Surfing Games provides eight Olympic slots, four each for male and female surfers. The highest ranked eligible athlete from each continent, with the exceptions of the Americas, will obtain one quota place based on the results at the 2023 WSG, subject to the athlete being inside the ISA quality control ranking.
Although Yang achieved a good result, she failed to surpass Japan's Shino Matsuda, who ranked 13th and became the highest-ranked woman in Asia to win an Olympic ticket.
China's team leader Zhou Changcheng praised Yang's performances. "I didn't expect such a big improvement from Yang after five-month training," he said. "She is only 14, and she was competing with most adult surfers."
"Surfing is a complicated sport which needs experience, understanding for the waves as well as adaptability. Our surfers are still very young and I think they can make more progress as they grow up," Zhou added.
The 2023 tournament is the second time that Yang took part in the WSG. She also reached the fifth-round repechage at the 2022 edition in Huntington Beach.
"This time is more difficult than last year," admitted Zhou. "There were more competitors than last year. As it serves as an important qualifier for Paris 2024, top surfers gathered here this year."
The Chinese surfing team was set up in 2018 with all members being teenagers. In order to find good wave conditions, they had to train abroad.
"We had trained abroad for five months last year and five months this year," said Zhou. "Only good wave conditions can help us make progress."
The Chinese team left for Costa Rica in January and reached El Salvador several weeks before the WSG.
They have South African coach Wade Sharp in charge. Sharp coached Team Japan at the Tokyo Olympic Games on home turf, which saw Kanoa Igarashi and Amuro Tsuzuki win men's silver and women's bronze medals respectively.
Sharp believes Yang has big potential but needs to take part in more competitions. He advised Yang to take part in professional league as soon as possible.
"Throughout all that training, I did notice that she was super dedicated. She spent a lot of time in the water, and I'm very switched on when it comes to relaying information to her, she absorbs like a sponge and that goes straight out back in the water and she tries exactly what you put forward. I think she has a super rad future," he said. ■
