The Visit Maldives Pro 2024, part of the Bodyboarding IBC World Tour, kicked off it's heats today at the Raalhugandu Area, with prominent athletes leading the way in the second round of the open division for men.

Visit Maldives Pro officially launched with a special ceremony held at the Raalhugandu yesterday. The competitive heats of the tournament started this morning, with the strongest today being the second round of heats of the men’s open.

David Hubbard, who has won a record 10 world titles in bodyboarding, took the lead in the first heat of the second round with a score of 12.6. Fabian Tazar of Reunion Island, currently ranked 15th in the world, also competed in the heat, finishing second with a score of 11.75.

The second round heats will be held on a non-elimination basis and the best two athletes in each heat will qualify for the third round. The third and fourth place athletes will compete in another round, with one athlete advancing to the third round. These heats will be held tomorrow.

Maldives' Ahmed Nazmeen finished fourth in the first heat of the second round with a 9.1 score. Yassine Elghazal of Morocco was third in the heat.

France's Ethan Capdeville made the difference in the second heat of the second round. He won the heat with an overall score of 12.25. Capdeville is ranked sixth in the world. Brahim Iddouch of Morocco finished second in the heat and advanced to the third round with a score of 10.4. Frederico Castelo Branco of Portugal was third in the heat while ourth is Ethan Perez from Spain.

The third heat of the second round looked competitive as well. The heat featured current world number 11 Socrates Santana, Maxim Castillo, last year's Visit Maldives Pro junior champion Jorge Hernandez and junior ranked number one Alexander Montes. Socrates of Brazil won the first place with a score of 15.25.

Castillo finished second and Hernandez third. Montes went fourth.

Maldives' Aamin Moosa also competed in the fourth heat of the second round, ranking fourth with a score of 6.75. Leading the heat was Brazil's Gabriel Braga who won the heat with 11.25 points. Peruvian athlete Micheel Yancce, who is fourth in the junior rankings, finished second. Third is Brazil's Eder Luciano.

South Africa's Tristan Roberts, France's Yann Salaun, Portugal's Joel Rodriguez and Maldives' Ali Sham Rafiu competed in the final heat of the men's open division. Salaun took first place in the heat with a score of 13.75. Tristan was second with a score of 13.25. Sham finished fourth with a score of 11.1 while Joel came third.

The first preliminary heats were held in the women's open division today, with Japan's Harka Yasumi and Rin Komatsuzaki, Portugal's Mariana Rosa and Japan's Sara Abiko advancing to the first round.

Austria's Alexandra Rinder and Brazil's Nicolle Calheiros advanced to the first round, while Portugal's Luana Dourado and Mariana Rosa advanced to the second round. Japan's Kaira Shirahase, Canary Islands' Teresa Miranda, South Africa's Pamela Bowren and Japan's Sarah also advanced to the second round.

The second round matches will be played next in the women's division.