YOUNG BARBADIAN surfer Che Allan won his first round heat to advance to the third round of the Jeep World Surfing League’s World Junior Championship at the south coast Kiama Bombo Beach in New South Wales, Australia, on Wednesday.
Competing in the 12th and final heat of the day, Allan surfed powerfully to gain wave scores of 5.83 and 5.97 for an overall tally of 11.80 points as he prevailed over South Africa’s Ford Van Jaarsveldt (11.17), who had scores of 4.50 and 6.67.
Brazil’s Joao Chianca had to settle for third place with heat scores of 5.87 and 3.33 giving him a total of 9.20 points.
While Allan advanced directly into the third round, both Van Jaarsveldt and Chianca will contest the Round 2 elimination heats. Brazilian wave wizard Mateus Herdy earned the highest single score of 8.83 in Round one with a clean, flat-spin backside 540 en route to a total of 15.16 in winning heat two.
There was an interesting development when Frenchman Erwan Blouin sent higher-ranked Top 5 seeds like Finn McGill into the do-or-die death matches of Round 2.
No. 1 seed Cody Young of Hawaii, after a slow start, surfed his way to the second highest overall score of 14.97 while turning a competitive showdown with Aussie Lucas and Tahitian Kauli Vaast into a romp. (EZS)