Chelsea Tuach has progressed through the Rounds to reach the semi-finals at the XVI Pan American Surfing Games currently being held in Santa Catalina, Panama.
Tuach has been surfing strong on the punchy right reef break. In her first round heat she placed second with a heat total of 10.10 to Lucía Indurain of Argentina who scored 11.17. Eliminated were Roan Reyes from Argentina and local surfer, Evelyn Chávez.
Compatriot, Chelsea Roett, also performed well in this Round, taking the win with a heat total of 8.7 from Nataly Gutiérrez of Costa Rica who scored 6.9, eliminating Catalina Mercere from Argentina and Sarah Sánchez from Panama.
Tuach came out firing in her Round 2 heat, dropping a 7.00 on her first wave and taking the win from Daniela Rosas of Perú who scored a total of 9.16, thus securing her advancement to the quarter-finals. Eliminated were Jolari Carreras from Puerto Rico and Genesis Borja from Ecuador. Roett also advanced to the quarters with solid surfing to earn a heat toral of 10.10 and place second to Estela López from Chile who scored 11.33. Eliminated were Mia Calderon from Puerto Rico and Ocea Green from Canada.
In her quarter-final heat, Tuach also started strong, dropping a 5.5. on her first wave and backing this up with a 5.83 for a heat total of 11.37, being narrowly edged out by Lucía Indurain of Argentina whose heat total was 11.66. Sol Aguirre of Peru and Chelsea Roett of Barbados ended 3rd and 4th respectively and were eliminated from the event in 9th and 13th place respectively.
Tuach’s advancement to the semi-finals has secured her a spot to compete for Barbados in the Central American and Caribbean Beach Games to be held in El Salvador at the end of June and in the Pan American Games slated for Santiago, Chile later this year.
Chelsea had this to say to our sports editors after learning the news of her qualification: “It feels great to qualify for both the CAC Games and Santiago 2023. I was the first surfer from Barbados to qualify for the Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru in 2019. It was a fantastic experience to compete with Team Barbados in my very first multi-sport games. I did not get the result I hoped for so now I am so grateful to have the opportunity to represent Barbados again in surfing and go for gold with the experience of the last Games.” Regarding the CAC Games, Tuach had this to say: “I went to the CAC Games last November and narrowly missed gold so I am determined to go one better in El Salvador.”
With Tuach’s qualification goal achieved, the pressure is off and she is just excited to put forward her best performance in her semi-final heat to try to make the final and bring home a medal for Barbados.
Barbados was represented at these Games by some of its top surfers. On the men’s side, Che Allan had a very strong performance in Round 1 winning his heat with a total score of 13.07, with Israel Barona from Ecuador placing 2nd and Sage Katz from Puerto Rico being eliminated. Che failed to find good waves in his Round 2 heat and ended 4th to Alonso Correa from Peru, compatriot, Jacob Burke, from Barbados who was 2nd and Miguel Tudela from Peru. He finished 37th overall out of 73 competitors from 19 different countries.
Kai St George, the youngest member of the Barbados contingent at 17, also made it out of his Round 1 heat, placing 2nd to Alex Suárez from Ecuador and eliminating Giancaro Mendez from Puerto Rico. He suffered the same fate as Allan in his Round 2 heat, being defeated by compatriot Joshua Burke who had an impressive win with a 13.30 total. 2nd was Oscar Urbina from Costa Rica and 3rd was Tomás King also from Costa Rica who was eliminated in 25th place.
The Burke brothers were the last Bajan males standing in Round 3. Jacob fought hard but was eliminated in 4th place, ending a commendable 17th overall. Brother Joshua also placed 17th overall.
“I am very proud of the Team’s performance. They were all focused and determined to do well and fought hard in all their heats. I am happy that we will have surfing represented once again at the Pan American Games in Santiago and at the CAC Games in El Salvador. That was our goal and we did it!” said Team Manager, Margot Tuach. (MT/PR)
