The Costa Rican surfer, Leilani McGonagle, triumphed this Saturday, May 3rd, in a qualifying tournament in Indonesia and catapulted to position 20 in the world ranking of women.
According to a press release from the Surf Federation of Costa Rica (FSC), the beach native Pavones de Golfito, Puntarenas, won the international tour stop in Southeast Asia, by harvesting a final classification of 14.84.
The stage involved one of the highest waves of the tournament, a situation that favored Macha’s performance, especially in the 1st round, in which the judges gave her an 8.67. Then she got a 6.17, enough to beat the Hawaiian Keala Tomoda, who managed a 13.76 final.
“Leilani’s 8+ was very solid and was the only qualifying wave in the excellent range in this final, which turned out to be a median left, very well selected and surfed as only Golfito’s goofy footer can do it for Costa Rica”, indicates the note.
With the victory achieved, McGonagle climbed 19 positions in the best ranking in the world, to settle in the 20th box. This, in turn, involved displacing the national one, Brisa Hennessy, who is now 21st. Both remain in the fight to enter the World Surfing League (WSL) 2020.
“That feeling, thank you all at home for being attentive; it is really best to have a country with such a big heart, I love you, I love you”, she wrote on her Instagram. It is the 3rd time in her career that La Macha leaves a stop on the qualifying tour, as she had achieved it in Chile 2017 and Barbados 2018.
The next stop of the porteña in the qualification could be in the 3,000 points of South Africa, or, in the 6,000 of California, the United States.
