Weekend of Demanding Finals Ahead for Men’s, Women’s World Surfing Games Plus ISA Aloha Cup
The fifth day of competition at the 2015 Nicaragua Unica… Original ISA World Surfing Games presented by Lafise and Claro opened with Repechage and Main Event rounds before it closed with the one-of-a-kind ISA Aloha Cup.
Upsets continued during the Repechage events. Most notably, the defending Silver Medalist Anthony Fillingam from Costa Rica as well as USA’s Ian Crane and Damien Hobgood.
“Everyone is surfing really good, and they are from so many different countries. I saw a lot of these kids when they were 7 or 8 years old, and it is cool to see surfing do to their lives what it has done for mine,” said Hobgood after his Repechage Round 4 win. Hobgood lost in Repechage Round 5, but finished with intention to leave an impact. “To compete against the younger generation and hopefully inspire someone, that is what it is all about.”
Tomorrow’s Main Event Round 5 Heat 2 will be one of the toughest heats of the entire event, and will feature defending Gold Medalist Argentina’s Leandro Usuna, Peru’s Joaquin Del Castillo and Portugal’s Nic Von Rupp. The two winners of this super heat will continue to surf in the Men’s Main Event Semifinal on Sunday.
For the women, the Main Event featured an exciting heat that included Tia Blanco (USA), Philippa Anderson (AUS), Paige Hareb (NZL) and Leilani McGonagle (CRI). Blanco and Hareb advanced to Saturday’s Main Event Semifinals, which sent Hareb and McGonagle to face the Repechage Rounds in their continued pursuit for a Gold Medal.
Coming into the Aloha Cup, Team Peru was prepared to defend their title and advanced to the final round with the second highest points of the day earning 40.77. Costa Rica, however, finished with the top score of 41.52 points.
In the second semifinal of the ISA Aloha Cup, teams Australia and Argentina advanced. Australia earned a total score of 36.00, and Argentina took the heat win with 38.69 points.
“The ISA Aloha Cup is based on a tag-team format. I love it, because it displays true team spirit,” explained ISA President Fernando Aguerre. “You have eight teams, the top seven placing teams from the last year plus the host country. We give the host team an opportunity to surf against the best in the world, and here, in Nicaragua, it will take place on one of the best waves in the world.”
For a full list of the day’s results, visit — http://isawsg.com/results/
The live webcast of the sixth day of competition will begin at 9:00am local time.
Tuesday, 9:00am Playa Popoyo, Nicaragua
Tuesday, 8:00am Los Angeles, USA
Tuesday, 12:00pm Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Tuesday, 5:00pm Paris, France
Wednesday, 1:00am Sydney, Australia
Tune into the live webcast here — http://isawsg.com/live/
