Small Countries, Big Wins at Day Two of the Billabong ISA World Surfing Games

Small Countries, Big Wins at Day Two of the Billabong ISA World Surfing Games

Perfect waves, high emotions and quite a few surprises in Panama
Watch the event LIVE WEBCAST beginning at 8:00 a.m. (local time), 6:00 a.m. (US PDT), 9:00 a.m. (US EDT) and 11:00 p.m. (Australian EST).

Billabong ISA World Surfing Games presented by Panama
Playa Venao, Panama
June 27, 2011

As an increasing swell delivered perfect and sometimes barreling waves in paradise at Panama’s Playa Venao, the second day of the premiere world team surfing event got underway. Surfers from eachdivision, both in the main event and repechage, hit the water.

The days schedule included Men’s Qualifying Round 2 and 3, Longboard and Open Women’s Qualifying Round 2 and the first round of repechagefor all divisions. 48 heats were surfed today, with a total of 96 heats completed thus far out of the total of 189 heats needed to finish the event.

After day one yesterday, National Teams representing Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and South Africa had all of their surfers in the main event, but today, they all lost at least one surfer to the repechage. Now, all of the 27 countries registered in the event have a minimum ofone surfer in jeopardy of elimination in the repechage.

With the Men's Main Event Round 3 completed, the 12 surfers who advanced, and who are now three steps away from the big final are: Thomas Wood (AUS), Ian Gouveia (BRA), Dylan Southworth (MEX), Michael Campbell (AUS), Santiago Muniz (ARG), Klee Strachan (RSA), Marco Giorgi (URU), Luis Iturria (URU), Drew Courtney (AUS), Rafael Pereira (VEN), Martín Passeri (ARG) and Manuel Selman (CHI).

Australia, the four-time ISA World Surfing Games team champion, is currently the country with the highest number of surfers in the main event, with seven of their team members still on the fast track to the final. Only Longboarder Dane Pioli failed to advance to the third round of the winners bracket.

For the second day in a row, Team Uruguay pulled off big wins in the Open Men division. In a stacked heat, Luis Iturria (URU) advanced in first and Diego Cadena (MEX) placed second. As they exited the water, the two surfers embraced as they congratulated each other, showing great emotion and national pride.

In the previous heat, another Uruguayan, Marco Giorgi, posted the highest combined score of the event so far, 17.10 (8.17+8.93) to beat Thomas Wood (AUS, 2nd), Gary Saavedra (PAN, 3rd) and TaumataPuhetini (TAH, 4th).

Later in the day, both Iturria and Giorgi made it through to the fourth round with stunning performances. “I've been feeling prettygood about mysurfing,” said Iturria.“Wehad reallytough opponents but we made it through. I’m concentrating onmy surfing and on the waves. I’m tryingmy bestto take Uruguay further in the Games.”

In the Women’s division, Silvana Lima (BRA) was the absolute standout. She posted a combined score of 16.67 (8.50+817) to beat Paige Hareb (NZL, 2nd), Tanika Hoffman (RSA, 3rd) and Pamela Verboonen (MEX, 4th).

“I feel verycomfortablein this competition and I just want to surf well,” said Lima. “My board is really good and I ameager toimprove, to score nines and eights. Nomatter whoI facein the water, I just want tosurf welland rip it.”
Other top performers in the Women’s division posting combined heat totals of over 13 points and winning their respective heats were JessiMiley-Dyer (AUS), CannelleBulard (FRA) andNikkita Robb (RSA).

Two-time ISA World Champion Longboarder Matthew Moir had another great day, posting a combined of 12.00 (6.17+5.83) to beat Martín Pérez (ARG, 2nd), CristianSantamaría (CRC, 3rd) and Matt Cockayne (NZL, 4th).

The South African, Moir, said, “I caught two good ones and made it through. The waves here are really fun, good for competitive surfing, and the beach is beautiful. The surfers from the South American countries have obviously improved over the years.”

The starof the day’sLongboard division was last year’s medalist, Harley Ingleby (AUS) who posted a combined total of 17.00 (9.33+7.67). Other highlights in the Longboard division includedAntoine Delpero (FRA), CaioHusadel (BRA), Piccolo Clemente (PER) and Tony Silvagni (USA).

Down the beach, the repechage rounds began withdo-or-die excitement. The best performances of the round were made by Leandro Usuna (ARG) in the Open Men division, Lani Doherty (USA) in the Open Women and Patricio Gonzalez (MEX) in the Longboard division.

The event continues tomorrow with the following heats:

Podium 1 (will have live webcast and scores)

Open Women Main Event Round 3 and 4

Longboard Main Event Round 3

LongboardRepechage Round 2 and 3

Open Repechage Round 2

Podium 2 (will have live scores)

Open Men Repechage Round 2, 3 and 4

Watch the event LIVE WEBCAST beginning at 8:00 a.m. (local time), 6:00 a.m. (US PDT), 9:00 a.m. (US EDT) and 11:00 p.m. (Australian EST).

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"JJ"
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Jose M Duarte S.

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Billabong ISA World Surfing Games