The national surf had a magical afternoon, this Sunday, at Fistral beach, in Newquay (United Kingdom). THE newly consecrated national champion Yolanda Sequeira achieved the first victory of her career in a WSL event, after winning the QS1000 that was disputed this week in the Cornwall region.
This was only the second victory by a Portuguese surfer on the WSL Women's World Qualifying Circuit (WQS), after Carol Henrique was the first to reach the highest place on the podium, in 2017, in Zarautz, in the Basque Country. One week after the national title party, the young Algarve surfer, who is only 21 years old, has now made the party out of doors.
To reach the highest place on the podium, Yolanda began by eliminating the canary girl Melania Suarez Diaz in the quarter-finals, operating the turnaround in the heat with the last wave she surfed.
Then, in the semi-finals, she beat New Zealander Ella Williams, 2013 world junior champion, thanks to a very solid performance, which ended with a score of 13,33 out of 20 possible points.
In the grand final, the Portuguese surfer faced the German of American origin Rachel Presti, ISA world champion in title. Yolanda had a strong battery start and, until the end, managed the advantage in the best way, winning the championship with 12,16 points, against 8,54 of the opponent.
After reaching the top 100 women's world last year, this result – she added 1000 points – will allow the Algarve surfer to get closer to the world's top 60, which puts her ever closer to guaranteeing direct entry into the main events of the circuit .
But the Portuguese armada also stood out in the men's competition, with two surfers reaching the final podium and one of them, Pedro Henrique, seeing victory slip away in the final moments.
The 2016 national champion led the final for most of the time, but in the last waves German Leon Glatzer ended up securing the victory, with a difference of just 0,43 points.
Glatzer had already been Eduardo Fernandes's executioner in the semi-finals. Despite not having reached the victory in the British race, Pedro Henrique and Eduardo Fernandes will ensure important rises in the ranking, they who were out of the top 300 in the world. Highlight also for the 9th place of Pedro Coelho, who lost in the 5th round.
This was the first race of the summer “European leg” of the WQS, with the “Portuguese armada” now following to France, where next Tuesday a QS1500 starts in Lacanau, in southwestern France.
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