Barbadian Che Allan continues to make his mark Down Under competing against most of the world’s top surfers.
Allan, in his first full year as a senior, has already competed in three World Surf League Men’s Qualifying Series 1000 events in Australia where he has consistently reached the round of 16 among the more than140 surfers.
After finishing fifth at the Carve Pro in Maroubra, Sydney, and 13th at another event, Allan landed another fifth position last weekend at the Mothernest TweedCoast Pro event in Cabaret, New South Wales.
Allan reached the quarter-final among the 144 entries, before finishingjoint fifth overall.
In the fifth and sixth rounds, he required excellent range scores in the final minute of the heat to advance, and succeeded on both occasions.
He produced a heat score of 8.25 in round five and a 7.65 in round six. Earlier, in round four, Allan finished second behind Chris Zaffis to progress to round five.
In round five, he placed second behind the eventual runner-up Luke Hynd, an Australian who hails from the local surf in Cabarita.
Allan also advanced in his heat in round six ahead of Australian Ty Watson, who won the event last year, and American surfer Chauncey Robinson, who was the runner-up in the WSL Men’s 1000 held in Barbados last November.
In the quarter-final it looked like Allan would achieve another dramatic comeback in the final minutes when he took off on a good set wave.
He performed two of his trademark backhand manoeuvres but the wave did not allow him to put in a third move, and his score was a7.10 just short of the 7.5 that was required. (EZS)
