2023 ISA World Surfing Games: Day 3 results, highlights, and livestream from the Olympic qualifier event
Surfing
One minute Tiara van der Huls was in fourth place in her heat at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games and destined for the slog of the repechages. The next, she was awarded the highest wave score of the competition, among women and men, and flew into the third round.
What made the episode even more dramatic is that the wave initially scored 1.5 points. But after the judges reviewed her finish, the Dutch teenager was given 9.03 points and bumped Canada's aerial sensation Erin Brooks out of the top two.
“The wave was so fast. It went so fast. I didn’t even know what to think. When I jumped, I kind of fell out of the air and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to break my board’, but then somehow I landed the turn,” van der Huls told Olympics.com. “I was just happy to show everyone that I committed on the turn and that I’m meant to be here.”
That heat not only saw the highest score of the competition but also the second highest, coming from Caroline Marks who scored 9.00 on her third wave.
So far in the competition, van der Huls and Marks are the only athletes, male or female, to score 9.0 or higher on a single wave.
“I definitely want to strive for the best and I want to get the highest scores and the highest heat total and be the best one every time for sure,” Marks told Olympics.com after the heat.
Marks easily punched her ticket into the third round, along with her teammate, world No.1 Carissa Moore and other top medal contenders, Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons and Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb.
As it happened: The rise of the underdogs
While all of the top female surfers are still on track in their quest for world titles, there were a handful of shock upsets on the men’s side.
Argentina’s Leandro Usuna found himself in a stacked heat that included three surfers from the World Championship Tour, Australia’s Ethan Ewing, Indonesia’s Rio Waida and South Africa’s Matthew McGillivray.
Never having reached that level himself, Usuna knew he would be the underdog in the line-up. What he didn’t know is that he would be leading until the final seconds of the heat and be one of the two surfers to advance to the third round.
“They’re all CT, great surfers, but I’ve known them for a long time. I’ve surfed with them a bunch in the (Qualifying Series) and other ISA World Games so we all know each other, although they’re in the big leagues now,” Usuna said. “It’s just another heat for me and I enjoy being out there with them, just to see my level compared to theirs.
“It was going to be a challenging heat, but I was good and smart in catching that first good wave and then just keeping the momentum going through the heat.”
Ecuador’s Alex Suarez also brought some drama to the shores of El Sunzal. Starting in the first heat of the day with world No.1 Griffin Colapinto and the top-ranked European surfer Leonardo Fioravanti of Italy, Suarez flew under the radar until his consistent surfing bumped Colapinto into third place.
“Since the beginning I knew I was facing a hard heat against some of the top of the world,” Suarez told Olympics.com. “Fioravanti got an eight-point ride so I had to go all in. My strategy was to stay calm, select the right waves and try to use all the potential of the wave.
“I competed in the (2019) ISA Worlds in Japan but I missed the ISA last year so I am taking this opportunity to show all the work I’ve done in and outside the water. I am really happy to see things coming together.”
Chelsea Tuach: Inspiring the next generation in Barbados
Argentina and Ecuador were not the only countries celebrating their victories on shore. Team Barbados was jubilant after Chelsea Tuach finished first in her heat, which also saw Brazil’s young star Luana Silva knocked into the repechages.
“I had a plan going out there and it went perfectly because I really wanted to get two waves at the start early,” Tuach told Olympics.com. “It really couldn’t have gone better and gives me a little bit more confidence.”
It was especially important for Tuach to show a good performance in El Salvador because her previous experience on these waters, at the 2021 ISA World Surfing Games, was disappointing.
“It was my Olympic qualifier and I didn’t do so well. I was a ball of nerves after not competing for 18 months since Covid,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot and grown so much in those two years. And it’s really lovely to look back on and see where I am now, how confident my surfing is, how calm and happy I am.”
Coming from a small island nation with a population of less than 300,000, Tuach knows that every move she makes on her board resonates back home.
The national junior team is following the competition in El Salvador and sending encouraging messages to the six surfers representing Barbados.
“We’ve got everybody watching. All of my group chats are blowing up and they’re really proud of us,” said Tuach, recalling how small the national team was when she first represented Barbados at the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in 2006 and the multiple times she was the only athlete from the country at competitions.
“Now we’ve got a full team and we’re doing so well. We’re advancing through the rounds and it’s incredible for our juniors back home to see what they can accomplish,” Tuach said. “I’m really proud of where we are, and where we’re going, and we’re not done yet.”
Her teammates Jacob Burke and Che Allan have also advanced and will compete in the men’s third round on Saturday, 4 June.
Looking ahead: Day 4 action
The men’s third round will see Brazil's Gabriel Medina go head-to-head with the surfer who has come tantilisingly close to challenging him for the highest total scores, Sebastian Hernandez. The Mexican is in top form and could become the underdog success story of the competition.
And Hernandez won’t be the only challenge in that heat, which also features Spain’s Aritz Aramburo and local favourite Daniel Monterrosa.
On the women’s side, make sure to tune in to the first heat of the day to see Japan’s Mahina Maeda take on Sally Fitzgibbons, and later follow the next chapter of Carissa Moore's so far dominant journey through the rounds.
All the action will be streamed live on Olympics.com.