ECUADOREAN WOMEN EARNS THE HIGHEST SCORE OF THE CLARO ISA 50TH ANNIVERSARY WORLD SURFING GAMES

The world’s best Women surfers hit to the water for the first time on Day 3 of the Claro ISA 50th Anniversary World Surfing Games. The surf was perfect during the day, which allowed the women to showcase their technical skills that demonstrated how far the development of the sport has come in women’s surfing.

Punta Rocas, delivered once again with incredible waves that lined up perfect all the way from the outside to the inside, allowing the representatives from the 22 National Teams to compete at the highest level for the coveted Individual Gold Medals and the Fernando Aguerre World Team Trophy.

"Punta Rocas was spectacular again today. We had something very special, as the women started surfing. We had amazing competition with the incredible performance by the competitor from Ecuador, "Mimi" Barona that’s going to blow your mind. She had the highest score in the competition in both men and women. Don’t miss all the exciting action at the ISA World Surfing Games with drama building as National Team Members head into elimination rounds tomorrow."

It was Ecuador Team Member, Dominic "Mimi" Barona that took full advantage of the conditions, dominating her heat and earning the event’s highest total heat score of 18.23.

Barona commented about her heat: "I saw this wave, and I knew that it had a lot of potential, I just surfed and the judges liked it. I know that I have the level and I have trained hard for this, so I want to show it off and now the results are here."

"I feel like at home, I love this wave," continued the ecstatic Ecuadorean. "You just need to know which waves to surf, so I think that I have a good connection here with the sea. The Peruvian people treat me great and I also have my team that is like my family. It’s great to know that you have these people supporting you and also to show that women are raising the level of performance."

Barona defeated 2013 Girls U-16 ISA World Junior Silver Medalist, Karelle Popke (8.56) from Tahiti, Tanika Hoffman (8.40) from South Africa, and Denisse Martinez (2.37) from Mexico.

After the Women’s Round 1, the Men’s Main Event Round 3 took place, where Anthony Fillingim from Costa Rica had the highest total heat score of the round, with a total of 16.36, defeating Mexico’s Diego Cadena (10.47), New Zealand’s Tane Wallis (9.56) and Chile’s Tristan Aicardi (7.03).

To close the day, the roster of competitors narrowed for the first time, after the first athletes were sent home during Men’s Repechage Round 1. The standout of this elimination round was Australia´s Otis Carey, who posted a total heat score of 12.5, defeating Costa Rica’s Maykol Torres (9.84) and Scotland’s Iain Masson (3.73), who was eliminated from the event. Unfortunately for the Aussie, he suffered an injury towards the end of the heat, dislocating his shoulder on a wipeout, and will be sidelined for the remainder of the event.

Another great story of the day was Russia’s Sergey Rasshivaev, who won his heat with of 6.56, defeating Colombia’s Alejandro Covo Meisel (4.23), and Turkey’s Onat Ersoy (.66).

For a full list of today’s results, click here- http://isawsg.com/results/

The Claro ISA 50th Anniversary World Surfing Games resumes tomorrow at 7:40am with The Morning Show hosted by "Vico" Hamel, with Guests from Team Scotland and Russia.

Following the Morning Show, competition will feature:

12 heats of Open Men’s Repechage Round 2

4 heats of Open Women’s Repechage Round 1

6 heats of Open Men’s Repechage Round 3

The live webcast of the entire Claro ISA 50th Anniversary World Surfing Games is available on http://isawsg.com/. You can also watch the replay of each day by clicking the tab "Previous Days Webcast."

Here is the scheduled for Day 4:

Tuesday, 7:40am Punta Rocas, Peru

Tuesday, 5:40am West Coast USA

Tuesday, 2:40pm Western Europe/ South Africa

Tuesday, 9:40pm Tokyo, Japan

Tuesday, 11:40pm Sydney, Australia

Wednesday, 12:40am Auckland, New Zealand

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