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COSTA RICA |
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Jair
Perez Has Best Day of Surfing for Costa Rica
at Panam Games
The surfer from Jacó Beach, Jair Pérez, once
again put out a high dosage of surfing at
the IX PanAmerican Surfing Games in Brazil.
In doing so, he earned a combination of
12.10 on the 2nd day of fighting in the Open
division in waves at Playa Olivenca de
Ilhéus in Bahia, Brazil.
Called the "small giant of Latin America,"
Pérez had his best moment, superior to all
in his división, thanks to the benefit of a
wave that that belied his size, and came
with force and character trademark to his
character.
In his series, he passed the Argentineans
Martín Passeri, Marcelo Rodríguez and the
Brazilian Kristian Kimmerson.
As a team, Costa Rica is once again
dominating in the Open category, with 3 of
its 4 surfers moving to Round 3 in the main
event. In this sense, Pérez, Jason Torres (Jaco),
and Carlos Muñoz (Esterillos) have already
crossed half of the way towards the end of
this event. However, when they next meet in
Round 3--along with Brazil's Ruda Carvalho--they
will fight it out in the same heat, meaning
at least one of them will end up in
repercharge that will be run on Friday. Of
course, if Carvalho ends up in 1st place,
two ticos will end up in repercharge.
On this second day of competition, San
Jose's Esteban Leitón entered the water for
his 2nd representation of Costa Rica as a
Longboarder, and surprised all when he
classified himself into Round 2 of the main
event, coming in 2nd place in front of
Venezuala's Alexander Wilhiem and behind 1st
place Brazilian Eduardo Bage. This first
effort on the Costa Rica National Surf Team
provides vital points towards the overall
effort.
Meanwhile, Torres--a champion shortboarder
and riding a Longboard for the first time in
an international event--didn't fare well and
fell immediately to repercharge, to take
place later in the contest.
The Juniors didn't do well in the main show
today, surfing hard, yet all falling to
repercharge one by one: Jordan Hernandez
(Limon), Anthony Fillingim (Jaco) and Muñoz,
in Heat 1, 2, and 3.
Tomorrow the IX PanAmerican Surfing Games
will run these repercharge heats along with
Women's, where Lisbeth Vindas (Jaco) will
surf in Round 1. Today she had a hard fight
and fell to 3rd place behind 1st place
Camila Cassia of Brazil and 2nd place Flavia
Fernandez of Venezuela.
Costa Rica's female standout was Nataly
Bernold of Jaco, who dominated the beach
break and pulled into 2nd place in her heat
behind 1st place Brazilian Gabriela Leite
and ahead of 3rd place Venezuelan Rosany
Alvarez.
Tomorrow will be an extremely important day
of competition because several teams will
begin to lose athletes completely as they
fall out of repercharge. They, along with
Costa Rica, hope to avoid this scenario.
Until now, the 120 athletes inscribed by the
9 teams in Brazil are all alive.
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