The United States, Japan, Australia, France and Brazil are leading the ISA Vissla Junior World Championships, which are taking place in Huntington Beach, California, and which yesterday marked its fifth day of competition.

These five teams are the only ones that currently have all of their competitors still alive in the tournament. The local team, however, has a significant advantage since 11 of its 12 members are ranked in the main event, still with one more “life” in the competition.

Among the Spanish teams, Spain, which lost two of its surfers (Diego Suárez and Ana Betancor) is in eighth place, and Argentina, which also lost two athletes (Bianca Schiapani and Sol Galindo), is in ninth place. In a similar situation is Peru in 12th place and Chile in 16th place (it fell dramatically after being first in the ranking, seeing five surfers eliminated in one day).

At the individual level, among the men, Iker Amatriain of Spain and Malakai Martinez of Costa Rica in the under 18 men's category, and Alan Cleland of Mexico and Noel de la Torre of Chile in the under 16 men's category, made it to the quarter-finals of the main event and are three steps away from the grand final and the medals.

Among the women, Eva Woodland from Costa Rica and Nadia Erostarbe from Spain in the women's under 18 category, and Candelaria Resano from Nicaragua and Lucía Machado from Spain in the women's under 16 category, made it to the third finals of the women's category and are also three steps away from the grand final and the medals.