International Surfing Association President, Fernando Aguerre, has expressed regret over the exclusion of surfing and claimed he campaigned to have the sport included at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games but to no avail.
Aguerre said he started lobbying organisers to include surfing on the programme at the same time as the federation launched their bid for inclusion at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The ISA were successful in their attempts to have the sport included in the Japanese capital, but were unable to achieve the feat for Gold Coast 2018.
“At times discussions looked promising and it felt like positive steps could be made,” Aguerre said.
“However, these never materialised into concrete decisions.”
Surfing was not a compulsory or optional sport under Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) rules at the time the 2018 Games were awarded to Gold Coast in 2011.
The sport has not achieved either status since, with the CGF providing an updated version under their Transformation 2022 strategic plan.
It was claimed that the decision not to include surfing was also due to the addition of beach volleyball to the Games programme.
