The fourth game day at the ISA World Junior Championships in El Salvador ended with a positive balance for the national team: three of the five surfers who competed on Tuesday managed to stay in the main frame where they are already. in the quarter-finals. María Salgado (U-16 women) was the star of the day among the Portuguese Navy, with Matías Canhoto (U-16 men) and Francisco Ordóñas (U-18 men) also on the mission. In the opposite direction, after completing the 3rd round of all categories, Portugal lost to Francisco Queimada (Men’s U18) and Jaime Veselko (Men’s U16) in repechage matches. However, it was a much more positive round than the day before, when the Portuguese team saw six surfers fall for consolation tricks. The culmination of the day was the performance of 15-year-old Maria Salgado, who won and convincingly proved herself in the 2nd run of the 3rd round of the women’s U-16 tournament. The young surfer from Santa Cruz, the current leader of the junior national rankings, faced a very balanced run, but she responded in the best possible way, scoring 13.75 points and a great wave of 8.25 points in the middle.

Thus, Maria Salgado scored the best result in her category, leaving Spaniard Enara Palacios in second place with 11.95 points. Brazilian Isabelle Nalu (7.40) and Frenchwoman Lily Amber (5.75) were on the way. It was Maria Salgado’s second consecutive victory in El Salvador after overcoming the first round with 2nd place.

In clearly growing form, the young Portuguese surfer is already in round 4, the equivalent of a main frame quarter-final with just 12 surfers left in the competition. In the next leg, Maria Salgado will face Hawaii’s Wahiti Inzo, Japan’s Mirai Ikeda and Peru’s Antia del Solar in the second of three heats of this phase.

In practice, Maria Salgado is three heats away from reaching the medal final if she is not defeated by then. Otherwise, he can get there through flashing, since he has another “life” in relation to his compatriots. The same is happening with Francisco Ordoñas in the Men’s U-18s and Matias Canhoto in the Men’s U-16s, after that Tuesday they managed to get through another round by finishing second in their heats, both of the 16th surfers still competing on the main board in each category.

Matías Canhoto was in run 2 of round 3 adding 11.60 points and trailing Argentina’s Joaquín Muñoz Larreta who added 12.20 points. Spaniard Afonso Suarez (8.90) and Tahitian Toaura Haumani (4.20) were in the category of consolation. Now on the next stage, the young surfer from Peniche will face off against Americans Jac Ziets and Kai Kushner, as well as Spaniard Hans Odriozola in the first run of the 4th round.

In the same category, Jaime Veselko, aged just 13, finished the round in 3rd place in a heat won by France’s Inigo Madina with 14.20 points and Israel’s Ido Hadjaj in second place with 13.55 points. Jaime added 9.20 points and was still ahead of Argentina’s Francisco Cosoleto (8.75). With this outcome, Jaime Veselko got into the consolation game, returning to action only in the 4th round of this frame.

In turn, Francisco Ordoñas took 2nd place in the last heat of the 3rd round, where he eventually challenged the ticket with compatriot Francisco Queimado, who went to the repechage. Israel’s Uriel Uziel won the heat with 13.25 points, while Ordoñas added 10.85 points to Queimado’s 10.70 and Panamanian Kai Geil Grani’s 6.45.

Now, in the next stage, Francisco Ordoñas will be in the third and penultimate heat of the 4th round, where he will meet with Brazilian Ryan Cainalo, Englishman Samuel Hearn and Hawaiian Shion Crawford. Francisco Queimado, on the other hand, only returns to competition in the 4th round of repechage games in this category and can no longer lose heat to stay in the competition.

This Tuesday also marked the start of the repechage games, but no Portuguese were present at that stage. Beatriz Carvalho was the only one to lose in the first round of the main table in the women’s under-18 competition and will be the first Portuguese to make her debut in a repechage match, but that won’t happen until this Wednesday. The Costa de Caparica surfer will take on Estela Lopez of Chile, Angelina Decesare of Colombia and Juana Poz of Guatemala in heat 11 of the first round of the repechage.

Meanwhile, other Portuguese surfers entering the next round of repechage already know the opponents they will face. In the 2nd run of the 2nd round of the men’s under 18 repechage tournament, Martim Nunez will play with Okean Gittens from Barbados and Randel Salavaney from the Netherlands. In the second round of the under-18 repechage games, Gabriela Dinis and Benedita Teixeira are still waiting for their opponents from the first round. The same thing happens to Martim Fortes in the 2nd round of the men’s U-16 repechage competition.

Finally, in the second round of the U16 repechage tournament, Maria Diaz will be in heat 10, where she will face Nicaraguan Maxima Rezano, Venezuelan Valerie Benitez and Swiss Celia Magras, with Erica Maximo in 12th place. round against Argentinean Vera Yaris, Thai Isabelle Faye Higgs and Chinese Jinxing Zhang.

This Wednesday the action in El Salvador will focus on these initial repechage rounds, where Portugal will play important cards in the fight for the final collective standings and the corresponding medals.