Cover photo: Marco Giorgi, top 120 of the QS, is one of the strong cards of the Uruguayan team for the Pan American. Photo: WSL

Francisco Morosini, Luisma Iturria, Sebastián Olarte, Marco Giorgi, Julián Schweizer and Ignacio Pignataro will represent Uruguay at the Pan American Surfing Games that will take place in Punta Rocas, Peru, between December 2 and 9, USU informed DUKE.

In addition to medals, the four open athletes will be seeking one or two spots at the 2019 Lima Pan American Games, the second largest multi-sport tournament in the world.

After the ISA World Championships were held in Japan and the 2018 Latin Tour concluded, the Pan American Surfing Championships will determine all the remaining spots for the debut of surfing in the aforementioned event, which also qualifies for Tokyo 2020.

The top six eligible open men's surfers from the December tournament will qualify for Lima 2019, or two per country for the top two countries in open men who achieve the best combined score among the four surfers in the division.

As for the longboarders, those who are among the top seven eligible places will qualify for Lima 2019. Both Schweizer and Pignataro have won medals at the Pan American Surfing Championships, so they have a great chance of getting a place in the great Pan American multi-sport event.

Lucas Madrid has one foot in Lima 2019 
Having finished fourth in the Latin ranking and with an Ecuadorian, a Brazilian and a Peruvian above him, Punta del Este's Lucas Madrid has one foot in Lima 2019.

As the qualification criteria is ISA-PASA-ALAS and the locals enter through a different quota, Madrid would qualify if one of the countries above it qualifies through the Pan American Surf Championship and if no other Uruguayan manages to get into the top six eligible or the open men combined manage to get into the top 2 as teams.

In other words, it is very likely that a Uruguayan will be present at Lima 2019 in the men's open category.