Tuach advances to the finals at Pan Am Games in Peru

Article by PR

Chelsea Tuach has advanced to the finals of the Pan American Surfing Games currently being held in Punta Rocas, Peru for the second straight year. She advanced to the final after dropping the highest wave score of the contest so far – a 9.43 in her semi-final heat against Dominic Barona from Ecuador and Rosany Alvarez from Venezuela.

“I am so grateful that I found that set wave towards the end of the heat after a bit of a nervous start. It just had a perfect wall in front of it which allowed me to unleash some quality turns all the way to the inside. I am happy to be in the final again this year and will be fighting for gold for Barbados,” Tuach said after her semi-final heat.

Tuach will be competing against Brissa Hennessy from Costa Rica, Dominic Barona from Ecuador and Daniela Rosas from Peru on Saturday.

Barbados’ other representatives at the Games put on a good show but came up just short in their respective heats. Chelsea Roett was third in her Round 1 heat which was won by Canadian Paige Alms and Argentian Lucia Indurain, ending up in 25th place. Josh Burke also ended in third in a very close heat against Jordy Collins from the United States who won with a total score of 9.93, Mexican Diego Cadena who was second with a total score of 9.44 to Josh’s 8.70. Rounding out the heat was Canadian Pete Devries who ended in fourth position with 5.66 points.

Che Allan was able to advance in second out of his Round 1 heat which was won by Sean Forrester from Canada. Eliminated from the event in third place was recent winner of the Tomo QS held last month, Chauncey Robinson from the US and Angelo Lozano from Mexico who was third. Allan then faced two Peruvians in his Round 2 heat, Cristobal de Col and Lucca Mesinas who both started fast with solid scores on set waves.

Cody Young from Canada also found himself on a good wave within the first few minutes of the heat. Che fought hard to come back with his vertical off-the-lip attack but fell short ending in fourth with a heat total of 10.54. The heat was won by Cristobal de Col who scored 14 points. Second was Lucca Mesinas with 13.87 points and third was Cody Young with 13.26 points.

This means that Barbados will have only one representative in surfing at next year’s Pan American Games when Chelsea Tuach will be among the top 16 girls from the region who have qualified to represent their countries as surfing makes its debut at these prestigious regional games.

“I am so happy and proud to have qualified to represent Barbados at next year’s Pan Am Games in Lima. I will do my very best to make my country proud and look forward to participating alongside our top athletes in the different disciplines.” Tuach said once her qualification for Lima 2019 was confirmed. (PR)