Coverage of all stages of the Uruguayan circuit is presented by Chivipizza- Cover photo: Kito

Former member of the Uruguayan youth team Juan Jacinto Vargas from Montevideo was crowned champion of the first stage of the second division of the Uruguayan surf tour, which he debuted with consistent breaking waves at the Cuchilla Alta resort, in the heart of the Río de la Plata.

Vargas was superior to a field of 65 competitors in his category alone, a very large number for the standards of the championships in that country. In the final he left Santiago González in second place, Diego Sosa in third place and Agustín Ramallo in fourth place.

“I am happy with yesterday's victory, happy to win again. It has been many years since I had a first place in my categories. Yes, I have had some finals, but the first place was far away because of Fran Morosini and Matías Nóbrega,” the great champion told DUKE.

“Cuchilla Alta surprised us with the waves. I thought it was going to be a championship like the one we had there in La Honda, but luckily we had some good waves. In the morning it was a bit more complicated, the afternoon was divine and we ran the final with some very fun waves. The final was tight against Santi González., Agustin Ramallo and Diego Sosa,” he added.

“The new format works wonderfully and I think they achieved their goal. There was a huge number of entrants in the Open, a good number of longboards as well and the truth is that the championship was very fun,” he concluded.

In Longboard, the great champion was Lucas Vázquez from La Paloma, who left behind the young man from Punta del Este, Martín Cantera, Maxi Gómez, Tomás Moche and Camilo Romasanta.

Lucas Rainieri was the champion in Beginners, Mateo Spoturno won in Longboard Beginners, Felipe Eiris in Under 18, Benicio Serisola Under-13 and Orehana Javiel in Ladies Beginners.

“We believe that the development of the sport is in events like these. On Sunday we had almost 80 young beginners participating in a competitive event that is something not minor at all, and we finished a day in which a stage of the World Longboard qualifying circuit was played with 14 entrants and the first interdepartmental date with 63 entrants, something unprecedented,” explained the president of USU, Federico Deal in an official press release.

Final results
Open men
1- Juanja Vargas
2- Santiago Gonzalez
3- Diego Sosa
4- Agustin Ramallo

Longboard 
1- Lucas Vazquez
2- Martin Cantera
3- Maxi Gomez
4- Thomas Moche
5- Camilo Romasanta