After Raquel Bento had already left the race on Tuesday, remaining in the second round of the repechages, António Dantas fell in the sixth round of the repechages and his brother João in the fifth round of the repechages, the same one in which Inês Martins was eliminated.
“Everyone surfed a lot, but we have to highlight Inês Martins who surpassed herself, in a championship where the level is very high. Furthermore, we had some misfortune in António Dantas’ heat, which had no waves, forcing a restart for lack of waves, something very rare, and which made it impossible for him to show his surfing”, said João Aranha, president of the Portuguese Surfing Federation (FPS), in a statement.
Portugal was ranked seventh in the last longboard World Championship, last year, and heads into the last day of the race, provisionally, in sixth place, but should drop some positions today, as there are no longer any athletes in the race.
“We had a very positive performance that builds bridges for the near future of the sport in Portugal”, highlighted João Aranha.
For his part, the Portuguese coach, João Ferreira, was disappointed with the outcome of the last day of competition for the Portuguese.
“We are very disappointed because we thought we had a chance of reaching the last day of the competition, but in sport luck is part of the equation and António had bad luck, eliminated in a heat in which he only had one wave to score. In turn, the Inês was heroic, unbelievable in eliminating professional athletes with great international experience”, said the coach.
And he concluded: “Despite everything, I have a positive assessment and there are still many years to come with longboard giving good results worldwide.”
The Portuguese team was made up of the brothers Dantas (Surfing Clube de Portugal), Raquel Bento (NOCAS) and Inês Martins (Clube de Surf de Faro).
