KIMBERLEY DIAMOND CUP PRESENTED BY KUMBA IRON ORE ANNOUNCES 2015 SCHEDULE
World Skateboarding Grand Prix today released the Kimberley Diamond Cup (KDC) presented by Kumba Iron Ore schedule for 2015. Hosted in partnership with the Northern Cape Provincial Government, the Kimberley Diamond Cup will feature three Grand Slam regional qualifying events and fourteen Skateboarding for Hope community outreach initiatives leading up to skateboarding world championships event in Kimberley in October 2015.
This year’s KDC calendar gets off to an early start with the first KDC regional qualifying Grand Slam contest kicking off in Cape Town at Grand West on Saturday, 28 February, as part of Ultimate X. Over the next six months, further Grand Slam qualifiers will be held in Durban (14 June) and Johannesburg (30 August) to offer local skaters the opportunity to qualify for KDC Week.
“We’re excited to host the first Grand Slam qualifying event for KDC at the Ultimate X festival,” said WSGP CEO Tim McFerran. “As South Africa’s largest and best known festival for action sports, it made sense for us to bring one of our qualifying events to Ultimate X. We hope to see a very large turnout for the contest and we’ll be looking for the best skaters from around the country to compete in the South African Championships at Kimberley Diamond Cup this October.”
As part of the Northern Cape’s youth development mandate, the Skateboarding for Hope programme will traverse South Africa’s largest province as well as the rest of the country to promote skateboarding as an accessible, affordable sport. Stops are scheduled for Gauteng, the Cape Peninsula, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, Southern Cape and the West Coast.
For a third consecutive year, Kumba Iron Ore, a business unit of Anglo American, is back as presenting sponsor of the Kimberley Diamond Cup. According to Kumba Chief Executive Norman Mbazima, the company proudly continues its collaboration with the Northern Cape Province. “The Northern Cape has identified the sport of skateboarding as an appropriate vehicle to promote the province as the ultimate adventure and extreme sport destination, while simultaneously making a significant contribution to youth development. As a company, we firmly believe in providing opportunity and upliftment in the communities that are associated with our operations and we’ve had the privilege of observing the positive impact this programme has had on local communities,” mentions Mbazima.
This year, KDC will once again play host to the Skateboarding World Championships, drawing the best skateboarders from around the world to compete for their share of the $500,000 prize purse, the largest in skateboarding. Last year saw participants from 37 countries descending on the magnificent Kumba Skate Plaza in Kimberley to compete for the coveted world champion title.
According to Mr. John Block, member of the executive council for finance, economic development and tourism in the Northern Cape, “The Kimberley Diamond Cup has established itself as an icon event in the Northern Cape. With more than 16 000 fans attending the world championship in 2014 and being broadcasted in 173 countries the Kimberley Diamond Cup contributed to massive awareness of the province as adventure and extreme sport destination. We are also proud of the hundreds of new Kimberley skaters coming through the ranks at the Kumba Skate Plaza as we continue to work hard to establish skateboarding as an affordable sport and positive lifestyle for the youth.”
For a detailed schedule of events, visit www.kimberleydiamondcup.com/events or connect with us on Twitter at@KDiamondCup and KimberleyDiamondCup on Facebook
