Elimination Of Elimination, Surfers Rio Waida To Tokyo Olympics Third Round

River Waida (Instagram @riowaida_)

JAKARTA - Indonesian surfer Rio Waida advances to the third round of surf surfing at the Tokyo Olympics. The athlete of Indonesian-Japanese descent managed to escape the elimination round in the second round at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach, Monday afternoon.

Rio, who competed in the second round of Heat 1, was in second place after recording a score of 11.53, according to the official Olympic records reported by Antara.

The 21-year-old surfer's score was not far behind US surfer John John Florence who was in first place with a record score of 12.77.

Rio, who wore a yellow jersey with number 19 on the back, managed to outperform competitors in the same Heat, namely Billy Stairmand of New Zeland with a score of 11.34 and Manuel Selman of Chile with a score of 9.74. Meanwhile, Carloz Munoz from Costa Rica did not appear.

Previously, in the first round of the non-elimination round which took place on Sunday morning, Rio had not been able to be in the top two positions, so he had to undergo the second round.

The second round, which features two heats of five surfers each, takes out the top three surfers, while the bottom two surfers will be eliminated from the Tokyo Olympics. With Rio's score in the second round, Rio has the right to advance to the third round.

In the live broadcast of the coach's Instagram, Tipi Jabrik, Rio admitted that he was nervous when competing. "Very nervous," he said.

"No need to be nervous," Tipi Jabrik replied in a live Instagram on his account @tipijabrik.

He also added "after this man on man Rio, yes, different strategies."

In the third round later, surfers are divided into eight heats, each consisting of two people. Surfers who place first will advance to the quarter-finals, while surfers who place second will be eliminated from the Tokyo Olympics.