Hussain Areef (Ibu) has won the bronze medal in the men’s open category of the Asian Surfing Championship, emulating his performance at the competition in 2019.
The 47-year-old faced Indonesia’s Danny Vidianto and Japan’s Riki Sato and Ikko Watanabe in the final heat. Vidianto won the gold medal in the final heat with a score of 17.83. Sato came second with 13.90 points while Ibu scored 10.87 for third place. Falling just short of third place and coming in last was Ikko with 10.73 points.
All but two of the Maldivian surfers were eliminated from the competition coming into the final round of the repechage. Ibu and Ismail Miglal (Kuda Isse) both qualified to the sixth round of the repechage, having emerged as the top performers in the fifth round.
Ibu secured victory in the heat with a score of 13.80, while Kuda Isse came in second with a score of 12.76. Ammadey secured third place with a score of 9.93, and Sivaraj Babu finished last in the heat with a score of 7.73.
Ibu’s journey to the repechage round came after failing to secure a top-two position in the fourth round of the main event. Despite performing strongly in the main section and being a previous gold medalist in the Asian Surfing Championship, Ibu narrowly lost his heat in the fourth round, leading to his participation in the repechage.
Unfortunately, Adam Mueen Ibrahim, Hoodh Ahmed (Hoobz), Hassan Naseeh (Chika), and Abdullah Areef were eliminated in the fourth round of the men’s open category.
In the junior open category, 16-year-old Sayyid Salahuddin and 13-year-old Yasin Ahmed Nashid made an impressive mark in the competition. However, both surfers were eliminated in the third round of the repechage event. In the women’s open category, Mariyam Rahil Naseem (Aya) went out in the second round of the repechage event.
The final heats of the competition wrapped up on Sunday and the prize-giving ceremony are scheduled for Monday.
