<div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">History was made on the final day of competition at the 2022 Pismo Beach ISA World Para Surfing Championship Hosted by AmpSurf, with thirteen World Champions crowned on a groundbreaking day of action in wild and wooly conditions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Victoria Feige</strong> (CAN) won her fourth gold medal in a row to set herself apart and officially become the greatest of all time in women’s Para Surfing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I can’t believe it,” Feige said. “But I have gotten this far because of the help of the adaptive surfing community and how hard the other girls in my field are pushing me. I’m so excited to see where we all go towards the Paralympics.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold medals from <strong>Sarah Bettencourt </strong>and <strong>Liv Stone</strong> once again helped deliver defending champions Team USA their unprecedented third gold medal in the all-important Team World Championship. Bettencourt and Stone both won their third World Title in a row.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I want to dedicate this win to all the other women that showed up at this event,” Stone said. "It’s a record number of women. It’s incredible and I’m stoked to get more and more up and coming women in the sport of adaptive surfing.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The seventh edition of the event appeared to mark a changing of the guard. A total of seven new world champions were crowned and six of the overall gold medallists are teenagers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of the first-time winners, which today included <strong>Casey Proud</strong> (HAW), <strong>Llywelyn ‘Sponge’ Williams </strong>(WAL), <strong>Camilo Abdulo</strong> (POR), and <strong>Rafael Lueders </strong>(BRA),<strong> Aleli Medina </strong>(PUR) was the youngest, at 13-years-old, and also the first to win an ISA Para Surfing medal of any color for her national team.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I’m super excited,” Medina said. “To bring this gold medal to Puerto Rico, it means everything to me.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was the fourth final for Williams, across six years of competing, and this year’s win felt like redemption for the 27-year-old after an interference in the dying minutes of the 2021 Final cost him the gold medal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“From losing in the last three minutes last year to having it now, it’s overwhelming,” Williams said. “The whole of para surfing is building and next month we find out if we go to the Paralympics. So it’s all changing, and we have new people coming on board. It’s going to be a fun few years I think.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Five additional surfers added to their growing individual medal counts with<strong> Fellipe Kizu Lima </strong>(BRA) collecting his fifth, <strong>Alcino ‘Pirata’ Neto</strong> (BRA) his fourth, and <strong>Davi Teixeira </strong>(BRA) his second, while 2021 gold medalists <strong>Elias Figue Diel </strong>(BRA) and <strong>Roy Calderon</strong> (CRC) both repeated their performances to win back-to-back World Titles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It’s been a long journey for Teixeira, surfing’s youngest World Champion, to back up his 2016 win, but the 17-year-old had been setting the pace throughout the event and he carried that momentum with him into the Final to finally secure his second gold medal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I feel so happy, so grateful,” Teixeira said. “But the win is the most important thing? No, the most important thing for me is the people here and this energy.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>ISA President Fernando Aguerre</strong> said:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“What an amazing week, what an amazing event! Congratulations to all the medalists in all the divisions and all of the people back home who make this incredible event possible for the athletes. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Seeing new generations of athletes fills my heart with happiness. Now let’s wait for the news. More than ever I believe Para Surfing belongs in the Paralympics.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>RESULTS</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Team Rankings</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - USA (10,890)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - France (10,695)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Spain (10,448)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Brazil (10,440)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Women’s Prone 1</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Sarah Bettencourt (USA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Katherine Beattie (USA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Tracy McKay (RSA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Sam Bloom (AUS)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Men’s Vision Impairment 1</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Elias Figue Diel (BRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Thomas Da Silva (FRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Kirk Watson (AUS)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Ben Neumann (GER)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Men’s Prone 2</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Davi Teixeira (BRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Matthew Vanderhoogth (CRC)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Tomoki Fujihara (JPN)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Claudio Morales (CHI)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Women’s Vision Impairment 2</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Aleli Medina (PUR)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Melissa Reid (ENG)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Ling Pai (CAN)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Alison Eakin (USA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Men’s Vision Impairment 2</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Roy Calderon (CRC)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Jack Jackson (AUS)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Miguel Flavio (BRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Aaron Paulk (HAW)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Women's Kneel</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Victoria Feige (CAN)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Noemi Alvarez (CHI)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Emmanuelle Blanchet (FRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Audrey Pascual (ESP)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Women's Stand 1</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Liv Stone (USA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Cristiana Fernandes (BRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Catalina Castro (CHI)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Faith Lennox (USA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Open Sit</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Fellipe Kizu Lima (BRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Guillame Colin (FRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Juan Camancho (CRC)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Doug Hendrikz (RSA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Men's Prone 1</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Casey Proud (HAW)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Antonion Mueller (GER)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Marcal da Costa (BRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Christiaan ‘Otter’ Bailey (USA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Men's Kneel</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Llywelyn ‘Sponge’ Williams (WAL)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Mark ‘Mono’ Stewart (AUS)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Altair Olivares (CHI)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Ibon Oregui (ESP)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Men's Stand 1</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Camilo Abdula (POR)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Roberto Pino (BRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - John Wheele (AUS)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Kentaro Kondo (JPN)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Men's Stand 2</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Rafael Lueders (BRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Jean-Paul Veaudry (RSA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Phillipe Naud (FRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Kenjiro Ito (JPN)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Men's Stand 3</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gold - Alcino ‘Pirata’ Neto (BRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Silver - Dariel Melendez (CRC)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bronze - Eric Dargent (FRA)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Copper - Naomichi Katsukura (JPN)</div>