Local officials and newspapers cited the impact on the local business community as thousands of skate fans from around the country descended on the small town, once famous for its diamond mines. Hotels sold out all weekend, restaurants and businesses hired additional workers to help with the influx of fans and the local government relaxed alcohol laws to allow for all bars and restaurants to stay open 24 hours throughout the three days of competition. Dozens of busses arrived, carrying fans from cities across the Northern Cape and local campgrounds overflowed with tent cities filled with fans eager to see the best skaters in the world compete in their backyard for the first time in history. Officials from the Northern Cape Provincial Government said “we haven’t seen anything like this since the World Cup.”
Today’s Street Finals saw incredible action, as the young guns of the skateboarding world, like Ishod Wair, Manny Santiago and Tommy Fynn showed skateboarding masters like Andrew Reynolds (winner of MMC D.C.) and Greg Lutzka (winner of MMC NYC) they’ve earned their stripes.
Elliott Sloan landed his first-ever 900 with an incredible 900 tailgrab, easily taking the Mini Megaramp Best Trick contest. The 900 was also the first on the continent.
“This was absolutely incredible,” said Joe Maloof, creator of Maloof Money Cup and owner of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. “I’ve never seen anything like it. The fans were absolutely incredible. And Tomny just did an incredible job and did his country proud. It just upped the level of excitement for the fans, and you couldn’t even here the announcers over the cheering crowd. The people here in South Africa, and Kimberley welcomed us with open arms and we’ve had the time of our lives. This is an incredible country and we are excited for the future of skateboarding here and I’m confident we’ll see a champion from South Africa emerge very soon.”
According to Hazel Jenkins, premier of the Northern Cape Province, the event was a resounding success. “By hosting this prestigious event, we did not only focus attention on the province as a supreme adventure sports destination, but it was also a great nation-building exercise. This event has really galvanized the people of the Northern Cape to come together and show the world what we can offer. We are extremely proud of what we achieved and I want to thank everyone who helped make this such an inspirational event. To all the competitors, thank you for giving us three days of pure adrenaline and the best skateboarding action this country has ever seen. Thank you to all our visitors over the past couple of weeks and we hope that we’ve provided lasting memories and that you return to our beautiful province soon.”
For full results, visit maloofmoneycup.com. To download photos from the finals, go to www.flickr.com/mmcsouthafrica.
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Brendi Rawlin, Partner
Limelight Public Relations, Inc.
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