Four SA surfers still in contention at Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Champs in New Zealand
Four South African surfers remain in contention for medals at the 2010 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in New Zealand after a day of exceptional waves and high quality surfing at Piha Beach on Tuesday.
Excellent two metre hollow waves fanned by a strong offshore wind resulted in performance levels soaring as the world’s best 18-and-under surfers utilised their full repertoire of manoeuvres to impress the judges.
Birthday girl Sarah Baum moved another step closer to the Grand Final of the U18 girls’ division, squeaking through to the last four in the qualifying stream by earning 7.0 points out of 10 for her second ride and then posting 4.50 points for a ride that ended just 6 seconds before the final siren to snatch second place from Alessa Quizon (HAW).
Baum (Athlone Park), who turns 16 today, will be up against heat winner Tyler Wright (AUS), along with Malia Manuel (HAW) and Felicity Palmateer (AUS) from the first qualifying semifinal, in Round 5 where the top two advance directly into the Grand Final and are guaranteed a gold, silver, bronze or copper medal.
Team SA captain Beyrick de Vries charged into the last six in the U18 boys’ qualifying stream, delivering the second highest heat score of Round 4 – 15.0 points out of 20 – and finishing ahead of Portugal’s Fredericko Morais and the Brazilian pairing of Gabriel Medina and Jesse Mendes.
Both Brazilians incurred interference penalties and were relegated to the repecharge rounds as de Vries progressed to within two heats of the Grand Final in his division.
“It’s always nice to get through a heat,” said de Vries. “Especially to win gives my confidence levels a little boost. I’m feeling good.”
Commenting on the interference penalties, De Vries said he steered clear of his fellow competitors in the action-packed affair.
“At this point of an event everyone wants it so bad,” he said. “It’s so close; you can just smell the finals. People are willing to do anything to win. I just stayed away from my fellow competitors and tried to do my own thing.”
The Jeffreys Bay duo of Steven Sawyer and Dylan Lightfoot kept alive their challenge in the U16 boys’ division. Sawyer’s inspired run in the qualifiers came to an end in Round 4. He finished fourth in that heat and dropped to repecharge Round 6 where he comes up against Lightfoot, who has already progressed through two repo heats, along with a Tahitian and a Hawaiian.
Such is the grueling nature of the repecharge rounds that the pair will need to finish first or second in five consecutive heats to reach the Grand Final and qualify for a medal.
Team SA slipped one position to fifth place on the provisional overall team standings after a further four team members eliminated on Tuesday. The USA tops the rankings ahead of Australia, Hawaii and France. Tahiti and hosts New Zealand are in sixth and seventh spots with two days of competition remaining.
Team SA casualties on Day 6 included Jarred Veldhuis (Kommetjie) who finally succumbed in his fifth U16 boys’ repo heat to end equal 22nd overall, contributing 375 points to the team total.
Bianca Buitendag dropped to the repos after Round 3 in the U18 girls. Although she won her Round 4 repo heat, the 16 year-old from George slipped to third place in her Round 5 heat and was ousted in equal 13th spot with 450 team points.
The Kommetjie pair of Davey Brand and Michael February were also sidelined, Brand placing =25th overall with 360 points while February ended equal 19th with a haul of 390 points.
Team SA bounced back convincingly in the semifinals of the Aloha Cup where five person squads from the top eight countries at the previous year’s ISA World Junior Championships compete in a tag-team format.
South Africa came up trumps in semi one beating Australia, New Zealand and Portugal. Team SA accrued a 52.40 point total to progress alongside Australia (50.35) into the final.
Semi two was a tight affair, with Hawaii finishing in the lead with a 46.3 total. In second was France (40.60), with Tahiti just .45 of a point behind on 40.15 and Peru in fourth on 36.55.
The schedule for Wednesday’s action, which will all be held on the main podium, sees Round 5 of qualifying stream action for the U18 and U16 boys along with repecharge rounds 6,7 &8 for both boys’ divisions and Round 6 for the girls.
The day’s action will be completed by the final of the Aloha Cup.
Surfing commences at 8.00am daily (9pm today SA time) on both podiums with live action video, commentary and scoring webcast from podium one and live scoring from podium two at www.isaworldjuniors.com
The 2010 South African Junior Surfing Team is supported by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF) and clothed by Quiksilver with additional support from Skullcandy and Power Balance.
See Surfing South Africa’s daily Press Release, photos and video footage focusing on the progress of the South Africans at www.surfingsouthafrica.co.za
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