Brock Jeffery-Warren and Soli Bailey prevail in Round 2 of CHIKO Pro Junior at Newcastle’s Surfest
Australia’s Brock Jeffery-Warren and Soli Bailey collected successful results in their respective Round 2 (Round of 96) heats at CHIKO Pro Junior, part of Newcastle’s Surfest, which continued at Merewether in New South Wales, Australia, on Thursday, March
8.
The victories served to carry both the surfers to Round 3 (Round of 64). Brazil’s Filipe Toledo and South Africa’s also managed to make the Round 3 cut after securing runner-up places in their respective heats.
The 4-Star Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Men’s Junior Qualifying event had attracted a large number of Australian as well as foreign surfers to compete for the coveted $20,000 prize money as well as the coveted ASP Junior rating points on offer.
Since the very first heat of the day, the surfers had been getting troubled with the challenging six-foot waves, finding it pretty tough to tame them for a big score.
Moving to the 13th heat of Round 2, the situation did not get any better. However, Jeffery-Warren managed to collect a 4.50 off his first business-wave and followed it up with a 3.50-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 8.00 points, which
proved to be sufficient to earn him victory.
Toledo did not have much luck with the waves, only managing to score two waves and getting to a pretty modest heat-total of 6.20 points. However, the score turned out to be adequate to earn him second place under the circumstances.
Japan’s Kaito Ohashi finished third with a heat-total of 4.60 point, while Australia’s Nic Jones rounded out the bottom position with a heat-total of 3.75 points.
The condition of the waves improved by the time the event reached the 14th heat of Round 2. Bailey made use of the improved conditions to put on a spectacular performance, pulling off a string of exquisite tricks to post a 9.25 off his first business-wave
and later adding an additional 8.50 points to his account to get to a heat-total of 17.75 points.
Van Zyl showed a pretty impressive form as well, showing evident comfort in the waves as he collected a 6.90 and an 8.00 off his best-two waves for a heat-total of 14.90 points to go through into the next round.
Australia’s Nick Callister and Johnnie Keith saw their competition come to a premature end after finishing with a heat-total of 4.75 and 4.65 points.
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