Jacó beach offered great conditions for the competitors at the fifth date of the Kolbi National Surf Tournament this weekend; it was a Canadian-Costa Rican, Sean Foerster who took the first place in the male open category while Costa Rican Lisbeth Vindas won in the female open.

18-year-old Foerster from Samara, Guanacaste, won for the first time in the Open category and added his name to the favorites to win the tournament which will have its final date July 23 in Playa Hermosa. Jason Torres who was holding the first place finished his participation in semi-finales.

According to the rules of this National Tournament out of the dates that have been disputed so far (five in total), the best four scores are considered and in the last date the winner takes 2000 points.

At this point Jason Torres is leading the position table with 4,095 points, followed by Jair Pérez with 3,795, Anthony Fillingim who is the defending champion has 3,690, Foerster has 3,590 and finally Leonel Calvo with 3,210 points.

Foerster also took the win in the Junior category and earned $500.00 by obtaining the highest score in this date.

Jason Torres also took home $500.00 as recognition for the best aerial in the competition.

In the female category, Lisbeth Vindas won the first place, this was the first date in which Vindas participated, she had missed the previous dates due to the demands of her preparation for Ironman 70.3 . Vindas defeated Zulay Martínez who is at the top of the position table with 4,008 points followed by Coral Wiggins with 3,705.

Paulina Summers was the winner of the Junior and Girls female categories.

For the first time in the surfing competitions in the country the Federation applied four random drug tests to participating athletes, in this occasion the surfers that were tested were Coral Wiggins who participated in the women’s junior category and Paulina Summer who took part in the junior female division, Joseph Méndez from male junior and Dennis Picado in male open category; the results will be ready in the upcoming days; the tests had a cost of $500 which are covered by the Federation.

According to Walter Brenes, president of the Disciplinary and Competition Commission of the Costa Rica Surfing Federation , athletes were informed of the procedure and were asked to fill up a form and sign it confirming they were in agreeance with the procedure, in the case of underage competitors the parents had to agree and be present; “It was determined to be the best option, there are some cases in which we suspect use of some drugs and information has been provided regarding this; we want to eliminate the taboos about surfers and drug use and confirm that our athletes are not consuming drugs, because according to the international code an athlete that comes out positive in this test will face a sanction of 2 to 5 years”.