Sindy Portillo, from Miguel, marked the best performance of the Salvadoran representation by achieving first place in her heat today and advancing to the second round of the women’s category at the Surf City ISA World Longboard Surfing Championship 2023, which is held at El Sunzal beach.
The surfer from Playa Las Flores, San Miguel, closed with a score of 9:03 and relegated the British Emily Currie to second place with 9:09, who will also be in the next stage, while the Italian was in third place. Giulia Palla, with 5.30 and will play the repechage.
As announced on Sunday during the inauguration, Sindy danced on the waves and activated joy in the Cuscatleca delegation, which before saw how the male representatives Amado de Jesús Alvarado and Gerardo Castro finished in third and fourth place, respectively, to continue in the competition by way of repechage.
“It was very exciting, the vibe is felt even in the water and all the Salvadorans who are here. The goal is to go as far as possible and, taking advantage of the fact that we are at home, show all the Salvadoran talent”, said the local surfer excitedly.
Sindy’s official scores were 4.53 and 4.50 in her two best waves of the four she took in the 20-minute heat competition and with which she secured a good debut in the longboard world championship.
“This means a lot to me and not only was I in the water, but all Salvadorans. I rowed very hard for this result and every effort has its victory”, stressed the athlete
Alvarado and Castro go via repechage
For his part, the Salvadoran Amado de Jesús Alvarado finished in third place in his heat with a score of 10.60 and will play the repechage in the men’s open category of the contest.
The surfer, originally from Conchalío beach, was close to marking a better start by adding 4.23 in his last wave, which added to the score of 6:37 of his best wave, momentarily positioned him in first place with 10.60, without However, in the last minutes they also managed to add their rivals.
The first place in the heat went to the South African Sam Christianson with a score of 11.73 and in the second position was the Filipino Jomarie Ebueza, with 11.40, who had to wait for the result of his last wave to celebrate his direct classification to the next stage.
“Surfing is like that, at the last minute everything changes, but I finished third and I’m in the repechage. I hope to give a better result, today the house was not lent to me but they are mistakes that happen and must be corrected. In short, it was good,” Amado de Jesús said.
For his part, Salvadoran Gerardo Castro finished in fourth place in his heat with a score of 7.33, but also went to the repechage round.
The first place in the heat went to the Filipino Rogelio Esquieviel Jr. with 11.83; in the second box was the Argentine Martin Pérez, with 8.10 and in third place was the South African Alfonzo Pieters, with 7.53.
“There are a lot of emotions in the water, I went with the confidence that I was going to pass the heat with a first or second place, I couldn’t. But I have the opportunity of a repechage and that’s where we’re going to recover this bad result”, said Castro.
