World’s Best Women Tear Apart A-Frame Waves at Playa Popoyo
Nicaragua continued to excite on Day 2, as surfers from 27 nations from around the globe took on consistent and sizeable waves for the 2015 Nicaragua Unica… Original ISA World Surfing Games presented by Lafise and Claro.
The south swell held strong and provided extremely contestable lefts and rights. The women battled through heats of low and high tides, but ultimately the growing swell made for an action-packed day.
Sisters from Team Nicaragua, 11-year-old Valentina and 9-year-old Candelaria Resano did not obtain the necessary scores to advance through the Main Event. However, they will compete again in the Repechage Round with a second opportunity for their local knowledge to shine.
When speaking about the Repechage format of ISA contests, Valentina exclaimed, “If you get a really hard heat and you surf good, but you still can’t make it, it gives you a second chance. In my last heat I did everything well but I didn’t advance because I never finished my last maneuver. In the next round I want to make that last turn.”
The fifth heat of the day featured Peru’s Anali Gomez, the defending individual Women’s Gold Medalist. Gomez proved that her medal-winning form from 2014 was still intact as she won her heat with a total of 12.34.
“The truth is that I am really happy. This wave is incredible and so is Nicaragua,” Gomez stated ecstatically. “The competition is really strong this year because of Popoyo’s waves. We are going to see everyone put on a great show.”
New Zealand’s Paige Hareb achieved the highest total score of the day during Heat 7 with a total of 17.50. She won by a decisive margin, putting opponents Josefina Ane (ARG) and Candelaria (NIC) into a combo situation.
“The women put on an amazing performance this morning in their opening round. The level of competition is extremely high and the waves are giving everyone ample opportunity to put their talent on display,” remarked ISA President Fernando Aguerre. “The international support has been amazing. Every team has been coming together to represent their national flag as one. Even the athletes that have come here alone have the support of whole world behind them, that is the beauty of the ISA World Surfing Games.”
The women were not the only to surf, Men’s Round 2 offered up multiple heats of excitement to the global audience on the beach and watching the webcast.
One bizarre heat in particular featured Argentina’s Leandro Usuna, the 2014 ISA World Champion. Usuna managed to come out on top and was the only surfer not to receive an interference call. Costa Rica’s Carlos Muñoz fought through the heat despite his interference, and defeated Uruguay’s Segundo Vargas and Chile’s Nicolas Undurraga.
For a full list of the day’s results, visit — http://isawsg.com/results/
The live webcast of the third day of competition is set to begin at 8:00am local time.
Tuesday, 8:00am Playa Popoyo, Nicaragua
Tuesday, 7:00am Los Angeles, USA
Tuesday, 11:00am Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Tuesday, 4:00pm Paris, France
Wednesday, 12:00am Sydney, Australia
Tune into the live webcast here — http://isawsg.com/live/
