Bianca Buitendag defeats Ellie-Jean Coffey to claim CHIKO Pro Junior title – Surfing News
South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag got the better of Australia’s Ellie-Jean Coffey in the final of CHIKO Pro Junior’s women’s division that went down at Merewether Beach in New South Wales, Australia, on Sunday, March 11, to walk away with the event title.
With her success at the 4-Star Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s Qualifying event at Newcastle’s Surfest, Buitendag took home a prize cheque of $20,000 along with coveted ASP Junior rating points that are crucial to earning a place in the
Junior World Championship.
The surfing fans witnessed a series of intense battles throughout the course of the event as the young female surfers from around the world competed for top honours at the Merewether Beach. While the initial stages of the event saw the surfers struggling
to find big scores in challenging waves, the level of surfing increased considerably once the conditions got better.
The Final of CHIKO Pro Junior went down in clean three foot waves, making the stage an ideal one for an adrenaline-pumping finish to what had been a thrilling event.
Buitendag and Coffey had put on a handful of exquisite performances during their previous heats regardless of the testing conditions. The consistency shown by both the surfers had been phenomenal, the very factor that separated them from the rest of the
pack and brought them into the Final.
As the battle for the event-title got underway, Buitendag selected a couple of juicy waves to exhibit her classy manoeuvres to post a couple of scores in the eight-point range on the score-board for a heat-total of 16.65 points.
Coffey put on a remarkable fight, showing absolutely no intention of losing the heat to her South African rival. However, she eventually had to settle for a heat-total of 14.50 points, conceding victory and thus the event-title to her rival due to a 2.15-point
deficit.
“I’m really stoked with this result,” Buitendag said after the Final. “It’s going to really boost my confidence going into the ASP 6-Star Hunter Ports Women’s Classic next week. I surf against these girls a lot and I know what to expect, I just tried to
do my best and it worked out for me. The waves have been pumping, it’s been on fire the last few days!”
Coffey admitted that she was pretty disappointed about losing the Final, but further added that if there was anyone she wanted to bow out to, it was definitely Buitendag as the latter was her long-time friend.
The next Junior Qualifying event, Breti Girls Pro Junior, is scheduled to go down at La Sauzaie, France from April 17 – 18.
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