Marco Giorgi, Santiago Muniz and Rafael Pereira advance to Round 5 of Billabong ISA World Surfing Games open qualifiers
The fourth round of Billabong International Surfing Association (ISA) World Surfing Games’ open qualifiers went down in Panama on Tuesday, June 28th.
Amidst the challenging surfing conditions prevailing at the primary event site, Argentina’s Santiago Muniz walked away with top honours in the first heat, while Brazil’s Ian Gouveia finished in runner-up place to stay alive by advancing to the next round
as well.
Uruguay’s Marco Giorgi took top position in the second heat, while Australia’s Mick Campbell successfully avoided a disappointing result by finishing in second place.
Venezuela’s Rafael Pereira managed to emerge triumphant in the third heat to move into round five of the open qualifiers, along with Australia’s Thomas Woods, who finished second.
Just a quarter of an hour before 10 am, the first heat commenced, featuring Muniz, Gouveia, Mexico’s Dylan Southworth and Republic of South Africa’s Klee Stracham.
The Argentinean asserted his dominance early in the heat, locking a couple of good waves to score an impressive 8.83 and following it up with a 7.03, to finish with a heat total of 15.86.
None of his three competitors were able to match his performance, though Gouveia came quite close, scoring 6.67 and 7.83 off his two waves to finish with a two-wave total of 14.50 points. While the effort was unable to take him all the way to the top, it
still got him a place in the next round.
Southworth and Stracham rounded out the third and fourth places, consequently heading to the repercharge round, to fight for their way back into the open qualifiers.
In the second heat, Giorgi was pitted against Campbell, Australia’s Mick Campbell and Drew Courtney, as well as Uruguay’s Luis Iturria.
The contest turned out to be intense, with three of the surfers in the line-up putting up a really good fight, namely the two Australians and Giorgi. However, the latter managed to clinch the lead after scoring an impressive 7.83 off his first wave and adding
an additional 6.40 points to his account from his second wave. The score ascertained his first place finish.
Campbell settled for the second place after collecting 4.77 and a really impressive 7.90 off his two waves to finish with a heat total of 12.67 points. The result carried him off to the next round of the open qualifiers.
Drew Courtney finished third after scoring 12.17 points off his two waves, while Iturria finished last with a heat total of 9.00. Both the surfers were pushed into the repercharge round.
The final heat of round four featured Pereira battling against Woods, Chile’s Manuel Selman and Argentina’s Martin Passeri for survival.
The Venezuelan’s heat-total of 13.10 point, comprising of a 6.83 and 6.27-point wave, proved to be sufficient to earn him the top honours.
Woods’ performance was nothing he could boast about later, evidently struggling in the sea. However, even with the below-average performance, he was able to make his way into the next round. He scored 10.73 points off his two waves.
Selman and Passeri failed to read the surfing conditions properly and found themselves paying heavily for it. Scoring 10.26 off his two waves, the Chilean took third position, while Passeri rounded out the fourth place with 9.67 points.
With the fourth round of Billabong ISA World Surfing Games’ wrapping up, the organisers called it a day. The qualifiers were to resume on Wednesday, June 29th, with the fifth round.
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