Surfers ride a wave of emotion to write Olympic history

TOKYO, July 25 (Reuters) – Four of the world’s best male surfers made history Sunday morning as their sport made its long-awaited Olympic debut at Tsurigasaki surf beach with Brazil’s Italo Ferreira coming out on top of the first handle.

“I’m so happy, it’s a special event and I’ve trained a lot in recent months, I’m so happy to be here,” he told reporters after edging out Hiroto Ohhara, Leonardo Fioravanti and Leandro Usuna to qualify directly for the third round.

Saturday’s lame waves for the final training session were quickly forgotten as Sunday morning’s swells provided the power the inaugural foursome was looking for to showcase the best side of their sport.

There was a discussion as to whether it was Ferreira or the Argentinian Usuna who caught the first Olympic wave, but as the heat set in, the Brazilian world number one showed his class.

“It was a terrible (first) wave!” Ferreira burst out laughing. “I did two turns and the last one I fell, (but) I tried to catch a lot of waves and put scores on the board.”

With the strongest waves perfectly suited to his aerial game, Ferreira attacked aggressively, weaving through each wave from right to left across the beach and launching into late spins that impressed the judges.

“Compared to the last two days, today was really fun – more waves, more opportunities, and hopefully tomorrow we can have more waves and create something very different,” said Ferreira.

With each competitor having scored on his two best waves, Ferreira posted two late efforts that gave him a combined score of 13.67, ahead of local favorite Ohhara who finished second out of 11.40 to join the Brazilian in the third round.

Italians Fioravanti (9.43) and Usuna (8.27) enter the second round, where they will have another chance to qualify for the final stages.

“It was crazy, it was fun. It’s the start, it’s only the beginning. The first few heats are always crazy and an Olympic round is really crazy,” Usuna told Reuters.

“Mixed emotions, you feel anxiety, but it’s crazy. I love being here but I also want to do good for my country, so you have to hold your head up high and keep going,” he said. added.

Competition continues, with five rounds for the men and five for the women due to be completed on Sunday.

Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Stephen Coates

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