David Van Zyl and Kaishu Tanaka advance to Round 3 of Billabong ASP World Junior Championships
South Africa’s David Van Zyl defeated Japan’s Kaishu Tanaka in the 11th heat, while America’s Evan Thompson defeated France’s Pierre-Valentin Labo in the 12th heat of Billabong Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Junior Championships’ Round 2 that went down at the iconic Burleigh Heads in Gold Coast, Australia, on Tuesday, January 24.
Walking away with top honours from their Round 2 heat allowed Van Zyl and Thompson to advance through into the third round, while second consecutive lacklustre performances by Tanaka and Labo led to their premature ejection from the competition.
Both Van Zyl and Tanaka had failed to get off to a decent start on the opening day of the competition and thus faced one final opportunity to keep themselves from getting eliminated. The stormy conditions prevailing at Burleigh Heads were not of much help to them, but they had no choice but to quickly adjust to the conditions or else suffer a costly defeat.
As the two surfers squared off in the 11th heat, Van Zyl took an advantage over Tanaka by scoring 6.17 points off his first business-wave. The latter responded with a 4.57-point wave, failing to step out of pressure.
In the final minutes of the heat, Tanaka added another 4.93 points to his account to finish with a heat-total of 9.50 points. Van Zyl easily surpassed his rival on the score-board by collecting a 4.37 off his final wave of the heat, thus finishing the battle with a heat-total of 10.54 points.
The next heat saw Thompson completely steal the show through an outstanding performance. Opening up his account with a 7.67-point wave, the American surfer went on to add an impressive 8.33 to his account, taking his heat-total to 16.00 points and sealing the fate of the battle in his favour.
Labo struggled to adjust to the conditions at hand and only managed to score a couple of fours off his best-two waves. A penalty after receiving an interference call on the final wave only served to make the loss even bitterer as he eventually finished with a heat-total of 4.77 points.
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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