La Cicer, Gran Canaria (Thursday, May 17, 2012) ? A lay day was called at the Gran Canaria Santa Pro Junior due to small unsurfable conditions at La Cicer. Event officials after meeting with surfers decided to wait for improved conditions with a first call to be made at 7:30 am on Friday 18th May for a possible start to Round Two of competition.
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Mikel Zalakain (EUK), ASP Europe’s Head Judge on the event, held two consecutive meetings with the surfers and event organizers to decide on today’s course of action. A predicted incoming swell was the reason why everyone wanted to wait and see if conditions improved throughout the morning, but at 11am today event officials were forced to make a decision.
“Today is a really hard day, we were waiting for an improvement in the conditions but it’s still not good enough so we just decided not to run today and wait a little bit for the swell that’s coming this afternoon”, Zalakain said. “We feel like it’s better to have a full day tomorrow with two consecutive rounds. It will be a hard day but it’s better for the competitors.”
With the first round of competition completed yesterday, the second round was supposed to see the event’s top seeded surfers join in and battle it out with surfers who qualified yesterday. Everyone was on the same page this morning and the decision to wait for an improvement was unanimous.
“I think all the surfers were very happy with the decision, they didn’t want to compete in poor conditions today” Zalakain stated. “We need about a day and a half to finish the event and there’s a chance we’ll see a champion crowned on Saturday because the forecast shows an important decrease for Sunday.”
The next call has been set to 7:30am tomorrow Friday, May 18. The 2012 Gran Canaria Santa Pro Junior will run from May 16-20 at La Cicer, Gran Canaria / Canary Islands. For more information, and all results, photos, video highlights, and press releases log-on to www.grancanaria.aspeurope.com
For any other media related information, contact us via www.aspeurope.com
The Gran Canaria Santa Pro Junior is made possible with the support of the following event partners: La Santa Surf, the Consejería de Turismo del Gobierno de Canarias, the Patronato de Turismo del Cabildo de Gran Canaria, the Concejalía de Turismo del Ayuntamiento de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Hotel Best Western Cantur. Also an extended thanks to Halcón Viajes, Armas, InterSport, Café Central y Oceanside, Cajasiete amongst others.
UPCOMING GRAN CANARIA SANTA PRO JUNIOR RD OF 64 MATCHUPS:
Heat 1: William Aliotti (FRA), Charly Termeau (FRA), Tom Good (GBR), George Picking (GBR) Heat 2: Toby Donachie (GBR), Gaspard Larsonneur (FRA), Luis Diaz (CNY), Javier Ascanio Fernandez (CNY) Heat 3: Ugo Robin (FRA), Remi Petersen (NLD), Pedro Correia (PRT), Harry Timson (GBR) Heat 4: Ian Fontaine (FRA), Ethan Egiguren (EUK), Titouan Deffarges (FRA), Luke Dillon (GBR) Heat 5: Dimitri Ouvre (GLP), Kosme Fernandez (EUK), Nomme Mignot (FRA), Tomas Fernandes (PRT) Heat 6: Miguel Blanco (PRT), Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA), Andy Criere (FRA), Josh Piper (GBR) Heat 7: Tom Cloarec (FRA), Roberto Letemendia (EUK), Will Davey (GBR), Vicente Romero (ESP) Heat 8: Nelson Cloarec (FRA), Imanol Yeregi (EUK), Marcelino Botin (ESP), Simon Sew-Heng (REU) Heat 9: Vasco Ribeiro (PRT), Ander Mendiguren (EUK), Charly Quivront (FRA), Arthur Lasse (FRA) Heat 10: Borja Agote (EUK), Pierre Rollet (FRA), Luca Dioguardi (CNY), Maxime Bobet (FRA) Heat 11: Ramzi Boukhiam (MOR), Aldric God (FRA), Jorgann Couzinet (REU), Roberto D’Amico (ITA) Heat 12: Kieran Bulard (REU), Diogo Appleton (PRT), Julen Egiguren (EUK), Derek Gomes (VEN) Heat 13: Frederico Morais (PRT), Manex Bikuna (EUK), Alex Iriondo (EUK), Saul Torres (CNY) Heat 14: Alex Girioni (EUK), Luis Eyre (GBR), Andrew Petrelluzzi (GLP), Guilherme Fonseca (PRT) Heat 15: José Ferreira (PRT), Natxo Gonzalez (EUK), Maurice Meyerwestphal (REU), Mateia Hiquily (PYF) Heat 16: Fransisco Alves (PRT), Diego Mignot (FRA), Pablo Goncalves (REU), Lucas Jannier (REU)
