Spain’s Hans Odriozola works magic at the Repechage rounds

The Spaniards had already warned us the day before through their sports vice-president Lourenço Chaves de Almeida that Hans Odriozola had fallen to the repechage rounds but would still reach the finals. We can’t foresee the future but the young Basque’s performance on the third day of this Eurosurf Junior 2022 hints there is some truth in that.

Hans Odriozola lit up his competition with a total score of 17.75, the highest of the event, in all divisions, so far, surfing a 9.25 and a 8.50 (the two highest scoring waves of the day) and left a powerful impression in everyone who witnessed his heat at the under-16 second repechage round.

“I feel very good with this result”, said Hans Odriozola after that incredible heat, adding: “After losing yesterday, now I want to go to the final. This is a second chance but there is more pressure, of course, because I can’t lose until the final.”

It was one of the highlights of another 9 hour day of surfing, with the organization running a double podium, one dedicated to the main event, on the northern side of Praia do Mirante and the other focused on the repechage rounds, on the southern side.

Other standouts were Portugal’s Francisco Mittermayer, French Nicolas Paulet, Spaniard Kai Odriozola (Hans older brother) or Dutch Rendel Salawanej, along with French Tya Zebrowski and Spain’s Ibone Gomez and Maria Noor Mentado.