Jamaica's surf team makes Pan Am top ten

Jamaica finished 10th at the recently concluded VIII Pan American Surfing Games on the beaches of the City of Iquique in northern Chile.

The games were contested by a record 17 nations from around the Americas and the Caribbean. Regional surfing superpower Brazil took the top spot with hosts Chile second, Peru third and Costa Rica fourth. Guadeloupe, the highest finishing Caribbean island nation, was seventh with Jamaica tenth.

Jamaica, having not competed at the last Pan Am Games in 2005, were ranked at the bottom of the 17 nation tables. Jamaica's 13 member team was the largest fielded in its short seven-year history of international surf competition and did well to climb seven places up the regional standings. Local stand outs included Icah Wilmot and Eneson Lightbourn who both won heats enroute to their 29th and 31st place finishes in the Open Men's division and the Junior Men's division respectively.

"The encouraging thing is that we have so much more scope for improvement" said Jamaica Surfing Association president Billy Wilmot. "Even though we are at a tremendous disadvantage in terms of experience and financial ability, our coaches and surfers responded to the training and coaching development programme we have undertaken and were able to improve our regional ranking by seven places."

Wilmot added: "Furthermore none of our surfers have reached their individual peak yet and have much greater performances in them still to be manifested."