First losses for title contenders and a possible man down for Portugal

The fourth day of the Eurosurf Junior 2024, that is running in Santa Cruz, Portugal, marked the first time we’ve seen eliminations for some of the title contenders, specifically, for the title holder Spain, the host nation Portugal, and England.

Adding injury (literally) to insult, Portugal had a man down in Matias Canhoto. The talented under-18 surfer managed to win his repechage heat (rep 3) after a bad wipeout on the shore break but had to be transported to the hospital for further evaluation. At this time, it was still unknown if he can compete tomorrow. If he is deemed unable to compete, that would translate into a heavy blow for Portugal, who also had Tiago Guerra lose his heat of the under 16 round 3 of repechage.

Joining Portugal in this unfortunate club is England, that lost Sunny Ingram in the girls under 16 competition and Spain that also had Kenia Lopez losing in the girls under 18.

France and Italy remain untouched until this moment, but everything can still change with at least three more days of competition remaining.