Iballa Moreno makes history again at home in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, securing the event win and APP World Title for 2023
While it was a more challenging forecast to navigate at this year’s Gran Canaria Pro-Am, the best was saved for last as a new and groomed long period swell hit the line up mid afternoon on Sunday providing great conditions for competition to get back underway.
This morning, the Women’s Semifinals were met with ideal conditions to get underway early and it was clear from the outset, that the 2018 World Champion, Iballa Moreno from right here in Gran Canaria was not only on form, but had her targets clearly set on victory.
Due to the tighter window of conditions to provide the best opportunities for the athletes, a four woman format was adopted for this final day of competition. Iballa kicked off the day well, posting a solid 7 point ride to earn her place in Finals along with Luchy Cosoleto from Argentina, the other stand out of the competition so far.
But in the Finals, Iballa was able to step it up further, securing two strong rides to take the well deserved victory over last year’s Champion, Kaede Inoue from Japan in 2nd, with the Argentinian Luchy Cosoleto finishing in 3rd and the younger Inoue sister, Sakura, in 4th.
At 45 years old, Iballa continues to make history on the APP World Tour and for sport in general, securing her second World Title and second event win here in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a phenomenal achievement at any age. Her performance this year once again clearly shows that she is far from done and we can expect more from this incredible talent in the years to come.
In the Men’s division, it was a battle to the end, with Luiz Diniz from Brazil taking victory with another solid performance out at El Lloret.
After an epic Quarterfinals round held in a building swell on Sunday afternoon 26th November, the Semifinalists were set, consisting of 4 Brazilians (Luiz Diniz, Wellington Reis, Leco Salazar and Leonardo Gimenes), Benoit Carpentier from France, Taka Inoue from Japan, Sebastian Gomez from Peru and Moritz Mauch representing Gran Canaria here at this World Championship Tour Final.
It was Benoit Carpentier who set the pace in Semi one, advancing alongside the Japanese talent Taka Inoue, while in the second semi, the eventual winner Luiz Diniz made a clear statement of his intentions, dominating the stacked heat to take the win followed by fellow Brazilian Leonardo Gimenes.
As the final heat of the day got underway, all 4 athletes got to work posting solid scores, with the standout wave of the final and the entire draw coming once again from Leonardo Gimenes, as was the case in the longboard division completing what has been a great event for this young talent.
But it was Luiz Diniz‘s consistency and linking of turns that won over the impressive line up of talent in the Final to take the win, followed by an elated Taka Inoue, who wraps up another spectacular week of competition for the Inoue family to finish in 2nd.
In 3rd was the high scorer Leonardo Gimenes, who was unable to get a good enough back up score to take the win and the ever impressive Frenchman, Benoit Carpentier in 4th.
