Joaquim Chaves and Francisca Veselko win Allianz Ribeira Grande Pro

Joaquim Chaves and Francisca Veselko won the Allianz Ribeira Grande Pro today, the 4th and penultimate stage of the MEO Surf League that took place on Monte Verde beach, in Ribeira Grande, São Miguel island, Azores.

The last day of the competition, which started at 8.45 am, had the best conditions of the event with good 1m waves and high level surfing.

In the men’s final, the winner of the previous stage, Joaquim Chaves, faced the current national champion and winner of this year’s inaugural stage, Guilherme Ribeiro. Both showed a good level of surfing, but Joaquim Chaves showed himself with critical rail surfing in combination with progressive frontside surfing, which were the winning formula.

In his third consecutive final and second consecutive victory in the MEO Surf League, the 19-year-old surfer scored 13.05 points out of a possible 20, scoring 7.00 and 6.05 points in the two best waves. Guilherme was in the fight for victory until the end, but he was unable to reverse the course of events, finishing with 12.85 points (6.50 + 6.35 points).

In the semi-finals, Joaquim Chaves beat Guilherme Fonseca while Guilherme Ribeiro got the better of Eduardo Fernandes, champion of this competition in 2008. The athletes defeated in this phase of the competition finished in 3rd place ex aequo.

The men’s quarter-finals saw close and exciting heats. Guilherme Fonseca beat Francisco Almeida, Joaquim Chaves got the better of Afonso Antunes, Eduardo Fernandes beat Luís Perloiro while Guilherme Ribeiro got the better of Francisco Ordonhas.

All athletes eliminated in this phase left the Azores with a 5th place ex aequo.
It should be noted that it was at this point in the race that Eduardo Fernandes destroyed a left with a combination of four very strong maneuvers that earned him the best wave of the event: 9.00 points.

In the women’s final Francisca Veselko was more active starting to build the score with waves around 4 points. At the beginning of the second half of the heat, she surfed a left applying good backside maneuvers that earned her the best wave of the heat, 7.00 points.

Already in the last minutes, the 2021 national champion surfed her second best wave with 6.50 practically closing the door to her opponent with the final score of 13.50 points. Mafalda was more selective in the choice of waves and was chasing the damage, not achieving the desired turnaround in the final ending, ending with a score of 8.80 points.

In the semifinals there was a duel between two local surfers from Costa de Caparica in the first heat. Mafalda Lopes applied a strong rail surf reaching the score of 9.60 points and beat Beatriz Carvalho who finished with 8.30 points.

In the second heat, there was a dispute between two former national champions with Francisca Veselko raising the level to the level of excellence, beating Carolina Mendes with the best grade (8.00 points) and best score of the event (15.50 points) and the champion of the previous stage stayed at 10.55 points.

With today’s results, Guilherme Ribeiro and Francisca Veselko will be wearing Go Chill yellow lycra in the last stage of the MEO Surf League in a very exciting final stretch of the year where the maximum male and female surfing titles will be decided in Peniche.

Guilherme Ribeiro and Francisca Veselko won the special Allianz Triple Crown award, which rewards surfers who had the best results in all the stages held in Figueira da Foz, Ericeira and the Azores.