MotoSurf European Champion bags bronze medal at virtual sports festival under Olympic patronage.

The world of sports has been suffering tremendously in these difficult times due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Many competitions have been put on hold and not just sportsmen but also teams, clubs, associations and many others who are dependent on sports activities are facing enormous challenges. The is unfortunately the situation for many people, but at the same time, a big cheers for the many movements around the world who are inventing new types of competitions.

Thai-British initiative United Through Sports unveiled a brand-new format of a virtual festival which was taken under patronage of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF). What was it about? When it’s impossible to manage a sports tournament and gather a group of people due to hygienic restrictions, what about making a list of physical activities, film a video and compete against other athletes from all around the world? That would have been seen a Sci-Fi a few years ago. Now, more than 68 associations and 614 athletes joined the tournament of physical activities, talent competitions and Paralympic sports disciplines.

Sets of workouts called Max Fit also welcomed MotoSurf and its representatives. International Powerboating Federation (UIM) nominated its European champions of motorized surfing and so twelve-year-old Eliška Matoušková and Matyáš Novotný got a unique opportunity to test their skills and compare their performances with same aged athletes of various sports disciplines and nationalities. Every competitor, according to rulebook, filmed their sports performances to enter the tournament. After the draw, judges evaluated every single competing pair during the festival finals on 20^th– 22^ndNovember.

Eliška Matoušková made it to the second round where she faced a challenging competition against one of the later finalists. Matyáš Novotný set a superb pace and was victorious from one battle to the other. His first failure occurred in the semifinals, where American Rudisill Houston from the International Federation of Powerlifting beat the Czech talent. Bronze medal, that was a clear objective for the Czech champion heading to compete against the rising kickboxing star Marco Casali from Great Britain. Matyáš did it and secured the bronze medal!  

Motorized surfing world and the UIM also had its representative among the committee of judges seeing MotoSurf Committee Delegate Martin Jančálek and John Puddifoot – chairman of Youth Development Committee – carefully watching the young talents during the festival.

After receiving the medal and certificates of participation, both MotoSurf representatives were honored by the JetSurf inventor and MotoSurf founder Mr. Martin Šula.

The UIM athletes added:

Matyáš Novotný:“I’m happy for what I did during the festival. Some of the exercises were really tough for me. However, I didn’t expect I could go this far. UTS Festival was an interesting experience and I believe there will be another opportunity to try for the gold. I’d like to thank everybody for helping out with the festival.“

Eliška Matoušková:“I was really looking forward to be part of the festival mainly to compete against other kids from all around the world. Some of the performances were really difficult but the conditions were equal for everyone which is great about this festival. I hope I’ll qualify again for  next year. It was a fantastic experience and I’d like to thank UIM and MotoSurf for this opportunity.“