Wesley Toth and Carlos Goncalves prevail in Round 1 at Arica World Star Tour
Puerto Rico’s Wesley Toth and Ecuador’s Carlos Goncalves walked away with top honours in their respective Round 1 (Round of 80) heats at the Arica World Star Tour, an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 3-Star event, which kicked off at El Gringo
in Arica, Chile, on Wednesday, June 13.
Toth claimed victory in the first round to advance to the second round (Round of 64), while Chile’s Juan Carlo Lombardi accompanied him after securing a runner-up finish. Chile’s Roddy Alvarez finished third, while Peru’s Juninho Urcia rounded out the bottom-position,
consequently getting eliminated from the competition.
The second heat saw Goncalves make his way through into the next round. America’s Josie Graves finished in second place to secure his place in the second round as well. Chile’s Maximiliano Cross and Argentina’s Agustin Bollini were forced to exit the competition
field after finishing in third and fourth position respectively.
With an opportunity to collect coveted ASP rankings points and prize money of $55,000, the up-and-coming surfing talent from around the globe had converged to the beach-break of El Gringo, all pumped-up to put on an exciting show for the crowd that had gathered
at the event site to watch them in action.
Pitted against Lombardi, Alvarez and Urcia in a four-man battle during the first heat, Toth had his work cut out for him. The surfing conditions on hand were not the easiest to surf in, thus putting the skills and experience of the surfers to test. The Puerto
Rican surfer struggled to hold his own just as much as his rivals, but eventually finished with a heat-total of 6.10 points, which included a 4.00 and 2.10-point ride, take out the heat.
Lombardi struggled to cope with the hands and only managed to score a 3.25 and 2.65 off his best-two waves for a heat-total of 5.90 points. The performance was not something that would be remembered for a long time, but it did serve its purpose of keeping
him alive in the competition by sending him through into the next round.
Alvarez collected a couple of scores in the one-point range for a two-wave total of 3.70 points, while Urcia finished fourth with a heat-total of 3.00 points. The dismissal efforts resulted in their elimination from the competition.
The second heat turned out to be yet another low-scoring affair, with Goncalves grabbing the win through a pretty ordinary performance for a heat-total of 8.00 points, which included a 2.25 and 5.75 points.
Graves scored a 5.50 and 2.00 off his best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 7.50 points, missing out on victory by merely 0.50 points. However, he still advanced into the next round of the competition.
Cross and Bollini got called for interference, thus getting penalised. The Chilean surfer finished with a heat-total of 5.10, while the latter sat a two-wave total of 4.53 points at the conclusion of the heat.
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