Conner Coffin and Soli Bailey off to a perfect start at Billabong ASP World Junior Championships
America’s Conner Coffin and Australia’s Soli Bailey got off to an ideal start at the third and final stop of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Men’s World Junior Tour 2011, Billabong ASP World Junior Championships Gold Coast, by walking away
with top honours from the first and second heat of Round 1 respectively that went down at Burleigh Heads in Gold Coast, Australia, on Saturday, January 21.
With a successful result in the first heat, Coffin advanced through directly into Round 3, whereas his compatriot Chase Wilson and Brazil’s Deivid Silva got relegated to Round 2 after finishing in second and third place respectively.
Bailey also moved into Round 3 with a convincing win in the second heat. A second and third place finish by Japan’s Arashi Kato and Australia’s Ryan Callinan respectively moved them into the relegation round.
The 2011 ASP World Junior Tour was in its final stage now and it was only natural to expect the surfers to hold nothing back during their heats. Sitting in seventh spot on the ASP Men’s World Junior Rankings, Coffin did exactly that during the first heat
on the opening day of the final event of the tour.
With two-to-three foot waves and a sunny weather prevailing at Burleigh Heads during the opening heat of the event, Coffin wasted no time in getting down to business and drew first blood with a 6.50-point wave to take an early lead. Adding another 6.50 points
to his account later in the battle, he finished with a heat-total of 13.00 points to claim a rather convincing win.
Wilson failed to challenge his fellow countryman’s score throughout the entirety of the heat. Scoring a 4.17 and 5.17 off his best-two waves, he finished in second place with a heat-total of 9.34 points.
Silva failed to make much of an impact during the three-man battle as well and finished third with a heat-total of 8.66 points.
The second heat saw Bailey put his local knowledge of the waves to use to attack the most effective sections of the waves and collect competitive scores. Despite getting off to a slow start, the local surfer found a 7.17-point wave in the final minutes of
the heat and immediately followed it up with a 5.50-point wave to finish with a heat-total of 12.67.
Kato failed to come up with an adequate response to his rival’s performance and managed to get to a heat-total of mere 8.93 points, scoring 5.83 points off his first and 3.10 points off his second business-wave.
Callinan remained absent from the event site even though he was due to compete in the second heat.
The Billabong ASP World Junior Championships Gold Coast is the main event of 2011 World Junior Tour and will decide the fate of men and women’s World Junior Title.
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