Takara Ishii and Takuma Sugi, photo by Harimoto Akihiko
A titanic battle between Japan’s best riders, a top seed miracle comeback, and the end of a young gun rookie run were the highlights of day 2 at the Japan World Cup.
Japan’s top two men Takara Ishii and Takuma Sugi battled their way through to a dramatic one on one sail off to make the final. The crowd was cheering for both riders and the show was stunning with each determined to prevail and shine in the World Cup final in front of the home crowd. In the end Japans current #1 ranked Sugi was edged out by the a ferocious Ishii to seize the final spot. Only one could prevail but both demonstrated their power and passion.
The #2 seed for the event Antoine Martin from Guadeloupe and France was in a terrible position with 5 points of a potential 40 with only 2 minutes to go. Here’s how he describes his remarkable comeback from that near elimination,
“I thought I was ready to just give up because there was only two minutes left and I had had a truly terrible heat. I had zero jumps and only wave and I was in deep trouble!”
“While I was going back to the beach I was on a wave and I tried a goiter and I made it and I thought, huh, maybe I could still do this! Ha ha!”
Antoine went on to make the 3 man final with #1 seed Brazilian Marcilio Browne and Japan’s Takara Ishii.
Along the way we were all dazzled by tour rookie Jahdan Tyger from Brazil who fought his was through from round one with the challengers and made it all the way to =5th in his rookie pro event! Watch this kid as a future 5 star rider.
The Men’s final went on hold as the wind dropped out at sunset so we’re holding the final next chance we get with possible great conditions either Thursday or Saturday.
Tune in!
