Guerrero and Cleland were the only Hispanic survivors of the playoff carnage

Japan took the lead in the team rankings, Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica said goodbye to the event and the finalists of the Aloha Cup were defined


November 3, 2018
|EN News
|POR DUKE

All photos: ISA/Reed/Evans
Note presented by the International Surfing Association

The 2018 edition of the Vissla ISA Junior World Championships will go down as the most competitive in history; there are still two days of competition left and several teams that have managed to keep competitors alive until the end have already been completely eliminated.

Argentina, Costa Rica and Chile are examples of this, with the former crowning a world champion last year.

The Olympic surfing fever, combined with the fact that this world championship was being held in well-connected California, brought the world's best to the teeth. And Japan, which won the open world championship, displaced the locals from the first place.

Day 7 was a real carnage; with smaller and less consistent waves, three full rounds of repechages were taken to the water in all divisions. The first heats already had several interferences, nobody wanted to give anyone an inch and so various crossings followed, which ended with penalties.

Of the twenty Hispanic-American competitors who began the day with a lead in the repechage, only two survived: Jhonny Guerrero from Peru and Alan Cleland from Mexico. Neither woman was able to advance until the penultimate day; Costa Rican Eva Woodland was the closest, placing third in her round 7 heat and finishing the tournament in eleventh place.

It is worth remembering that Chilean Noel de la Torre and Spanish Lucía Machado and Nadia Erostarbe remain in the competition.

In the team ranking, Spain remained in a very respectable seventh place and Peru fell to an equally respectable 11th. Chile is 13th, Costa Rica 16th and Argentina 17th.

The event will decide its finalists today as well as the winner of the Aloha Cup, which saw the United States, Hawaii, Japan and France make it to the grand final (Costa Rica and Argentina competed and were eliminated).

Interferences marked the beginning of the day. The talented Peruvian Gabriel Vargas was penalized in this one and managed to get through anyway. All photos: ISA/Reed/Evans
Puerto Rican talent Dwight Pastrana surfed very well but left the tournament earlier than he would have liked.
There were fun conditions on what seemed like a summer day in California, "ideal" for a tense repechage day.
Aldo Chirinos also said goodbye to the tournament today.
Costa Rica's Coral Wiggins bid farewell to the event today.
Iker Amatriain and his father and coach Ibon Amatrian discuss the strategy for the next round. The young Basque was close to finishing the day alive; he was eliminated in the 7th round of the repechage.
Gabriel Vargas of Peru taking advantage of a right hand from Huntington.
In the series in which he said goodbye to the event, Amatriain scored a very respectable 13,03, but the level was very high throughout the day.
Jhonny Guerrero is eager, today he passed three series of the kill or die repechage.
Eva Woodland was the last Costa Rican to say goodbye to the competition.
The conditions were tough for the play-off carnage.
Although when the series came on it seemed more than inviting.
Malakai Martínez, always a favorite, said goodbye to the event.
Argentine Gaspar Larragneguy also said goodbye to the tournament.
Stylish cutback by Peruvian Lara Barrios, who also said goodbye to the tournament today.

 

ISA