The defending champs are down to four members after losing another surfer on Day 5 of the 2014 Claro ISA World Surfing Games in Peru.
Faye Zoetmulder surfed twice on Day 5, but unfortunately bowed out of competition.
Following an excellent start on Monday which saw her win convincingly in Round 1, Faye Zoetmulder was eliminated from the event after losing back-to-back heats. The PE local was relegated to Repercharge Round 2 after finishing fourth in Round 2 of the Main Event. An improved performance in her next heat saw Faye finish in third, but that unfortunately wasn’t enough to see her through to the next round.
After losing her first heat on Day 3, Tanika Hoffman has steadily improved as the event has progressed. The Capetonian won her Repercharge Round 1 heat on Wednesday, then improved her score again to secure victory in Round 2. Tanika will now face Cristina Vargas (ECU), Melanie Giunta (PER) and Karelle Poppke (TAH) in Repercharge Round 3.
Tanika Hoffman has built up momentum and is through to Repercharge Round 3.
On the Men’s side of the draw, Mikey February’s excellent run of form came to an end. He dropped to Repercharge Round 6 after finishing third in his Main Event Round 4 heat behind Leandro Usuna (ARG) and Anthony Fillingim (CRI).
M-Feb is not alone in that round though, because both David Brand and Casey Grant fought through two tough Repercharge heats to join their compatriot in Round 6. The Saffa pair shone in Round 5 with Casey Grant registering Day 5’s highest heat total – 17.70pts – and David Brand the second highest heat total of the Round – 14.73pts.
Casey Grant was the star of the show on Day 5 of competition.
There’s still three days to go at the 2014 Claro ISA World Surfing Games and anything can happen, but South Africa now lies third in the projected team standings behind hosts Peru in first and Australia in second. These projected standings can change daily depending on results though, so we’ll just have to hold thumbs that we don’t lose any more surfers from the event and that the opposite is true for Team SA’s opponents.
Check out all the results, highlights and photos from the event on isawsg.com. The LIVE webcast begins around 3:00pm (SA time) daily, so tune in to isawsg.com/live and watch the SA team gun for gold.
