In day 7 of 9 at the Vissla ISA World Junior Surfing Championship in Portugal, Costa Ricans Leilani McGonagle and Emily Gussoni earned their pass to Round 4 with first place wins in their respective heats in the U-18 female category. McGonagle went against representatives of teams Japan, Brazil and USA while Emily had to face USA, Germany and Japan. Malakai Martinez also got his pass from Round 4 to Round 5 of male U-16 category with a first place win against France, Brazil and Hawaii. Unfortunately Oscar Urbina and Zulay Martinez didn’t get the points to classify to the next stage and are now out of the competition, leaving Costa Rica with only 3 competitors.

The semifinals of the Aloha Cup were also disputed today (Sept 23) and in heat 1 Costa Rica’s team managed to win first place with a score of 41.8 against teams Japan who came in second, USA and Australia. The winner of heat 2 of the semifinal was Hawaii with a score of 39.1 .The Aloha Cup is a relay competition within the ISA World Junior Surfing Championship in which only the top 8 teams of the previous year take part; 5 competitors of each team (4 male & 1 female participants) have 50 minutes to take 2 waves each, the points earned by each competitor are added to the teams’ final score. The final of the ISA Aloha Cup is scheduled for tomorrow and the four teams that classified are: Costa Rica, Hawaii, France and Japan.

Malakai Martinez will have wave action again tomorrow in Round 5, if he classifies to Round 6 he will compete again that same day for a pass to the semi-final. Emily and Leilani will compete is female U-18 Round 4. Leilani McGonagle will be facing reps from teams Spain, Hawaii and Australia in Heat 33, while Emily Gussoni will be up against Mexico, Portugal and New Zealand.