Medals in Sight
Thursday 30 October 2014 With just three days to go, Australia and South Africa are tussling for 2nd and 3rd place behind Peru in the Claro ISA 50th Anniversary World Surfing Games in Peru, with four of six Saffas still in the game.
Each victory in a heat is one step closer to the Individual Open Men’s and Open Women’s Gold Medals, plus the overall Team Championship.
Host country Peru remains in the lead, but Australia and South Africa are sitting a close second and third respectively after a strong comeback yesterday, followed by Argentina, Costa Rica, and Chile. Team Peru are sitting on 16,760 points, with Australia on 14,800 and South Africa on 14,120.
Mikey February made it to Round 4 of the main event, but got a third, which dropped him to Repercharge Rd 6, where he is joined by Davey Brand and Casey Grant, making all three in contention for the gold, but with a gruelling four repercharge heats left before the final.
Davey Brand won all 3, 4 and 5 repercharge heats and posted the highest scores in 4 and 5: a 13.6 and a 14.73 respectively, while Grant also got number 1 next to his name in his Round 4 and 5 heats. David Van Zyl is out, dropping from Repercharge 3 with a 3rd, but coming so close when his 10.4 heat score matched Tahiti's William Peckett, who went through on a technicality.
In the women's only Tanika Hoffman remains, fighting through to repercharge three, after which there are two more heats to the final. Faye Zoetmulder is out, copping 3rd in Repercharge 2.
Punta Roca’s delivered excellent waves once again, with surf remaining in the 5-7ft range, truly bringing the World Surfing Games the greatness it deserves. Surfline, the official forecaster, has predicted the surf will slightly drop on Thursday before building again throughout the day on Friday and peaking on Saturday with 6-8ft+ with occasional 10ft waves crescendoing in time to finish off this historic event with epic surf.
The day started with Open Women’s Main Event Round 2, where Local Peruvian Analí Gomez had an intense battle against Ecuador’s Dominic “Mimi” Barona. Gomez defended her home turf fiercely by winning the heat, first posting an impressive 9.33 wave, followed by a 6.50, for a 15.83 total heat score. Barona followed closely, trying to protect the highest event score she achieved during day 3 of the competition posting an 8.60 and a 6.17, for a total of 14.77.
Other standouts in Women’s Round 2 were Australia’s Philippa Anderson, 2012 ISA China Cup Gold Medalist, who posted a total heat score of 14.17. Also, Japan’s Nao Omura, with a 12.34 and Hinako Kurokawa, with a 9.94, caused a big upset, sending Australia’s Jessica Grimwood (8.9) and South Africa’s Faye Zoetmulder (6.24) to the Repechage Rounds.
A stoked Team Japan after Omura and Kurakawa’s win. Photo: ISA/Rommel GonzalesA stoked Team Japan after Omura and Kurakawa’s win. Photo: ISA/Rommel Gonzales
In the Men’s Main Event Round 4, 2011 ISA World Surfing Games Gold Medalist Santiago Muniz from Argentina, showed his potential to reclaim the gold.
“I’m happy to be here, and I feel real good. It was a hard heat with three great surfers and competing against my good friend Cristobal (De Col), but at the end I just put all my energy on my maneuvers and gave it my best.”
Muniz earned a 15.90 defeating Australia’s Shane Holmes (13.03), sending to repechage Mexico’s Diego Cadena (8.96), and 2011 U-18 ISA World Junior Champion, Cristobal De Col (8.77) from Peru.
Another Argentinean, Leandro “Lele” Usuna with a total heat score of 12.44 and Peru’s Joaquin Del Castillo with 11.03 points, were the other standouts of this round.
Day 5 closed with the intense Repechage Rounds 4 and 5 for Men’s and Round 2 for Women’s.
Jessica Grimwood from Australia was the best of the Women’s elimination round earning a 13.17, and defeated Peru’s Melanie Giunta (6.84), sending home Grace Spiers (5.67) from New Zealand and Panama’s Samanta Alonso (3.00).
For a full list of results, click here – http://isawsg.com/results/
Today, Thursday, following the Morning Show (2.40am SA time), competition will feature:
2 heats of Open Women’s Main Event Round 3
2 heats of Open Men’s Main Event Round 5
3 heats of Open Men’s Repechage Round 6
2 heats of Open Women’s Repechage Round 3
2 heats of Open Men’s Repechage Round 7
The live webcast of the entire Claro ISA 50th Anniversary World Surfing Games is available on http://isawsg.com/. You can also watch the replay of each day by clicking the tab “Previous Days Webcast.”