Conner Coffin and Ian Gouveia advance to Round 4 of Billabong ASP World Junior Championships
America’s Conner Coffin defeated his fellow countryman Jake Halstead in the fifth heat, while Brazil’s Ian Gouveia got the better of Australia’s Matt Banting in the sixth heat of Billabong Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Junior Championships’
Round 3 that went down at the iconic Burleigh Heads in Gold Coast, Australia, on Thursday, January 26.
Clinching top honours in their respective heats, Coffin and Gouveia advanced through into the next round, while bringing the event to a premature end for Halstead and Gouveia.
With four-foot waves and slight on-shore winds prevailing at the primary event site, the battle for survival continued. The surfers could not afford the slightest bit of stumble as it could result in a costly defeat.
As the fifth heat got underway, Coffin put on a dominating performance to prevail over Halstead. The two Americans enjoyed a friendly relationship out of competition, but at the moment were intent on removing the other from the contention for the event title.
Coffins became busy early in the battle, going through a series of average scores before attacking a wave to post a 6.83 on the score-board. Keeping the momentum going, he added an impressive 7.87 on the score-board, moving to a heat-total of 14.70 points.
Halstead put on a commendable fight, though it failed to bring him a desirable result. Scoring 5.67 and 6.77 points off his best-two waves, he finished with a two-wave total of 12.44 points, thus surrendering victory to Coffin.
“It's always a bummer when you have to come up against one of your friends,” Coffin said. “It sucks because I want all the Americans to do well at this competition. I've always liked his (Jake Halstead) fast and powerful style, so it's not fun knocking him
out of the event, but that's what happens in competition.”
The sixth heat turned out to be an intense affair, with both Gouveia and Banting fighting tooth and nail for survival.
As the battle kicked off, the Australian opened his account with a 5.17-point wave, though Gouveia moved ahead of him with an impressive 7.00-point wave.
Banting went on to add another 7.10 points to his account, taking his heat-total to 12.27 points. He enjoyed the lead for a while, though Gouveia managed to surpass him on the score-board once again by collecting a 5.83 off his second business-wave in the
dying minutes of the heat, thus sealing the fate of the heat in his favour.
The Billabong ASP World Junior Championships Gold Coast in the third and final event of ASP World Junior Tour and will determine the men’s and women’s 2011 ASP World Junior Champion.
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