Garrett Parkes and Kaito Ohashi move into Round 4 of Billabong ASP World Junior Championships
Australia’s Garrett Parkes defeated fellow countryman Tim Macdonald in the ninth heat, while Japan’s Kaito Ohashi triumphed over South Africa’s David Van Zyl in the tenth 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.
Winning their respective Round 3 heats, both Parkes and Ohashi advanced through into the fourth round, while Macdonald and Van Zyl were forced out of the contention for the event title.
The opening day of the competition had seen Parkes, current No.3 on the ASP World Junior Rankings, in excellent form, allowing him to get off to an ideal start. With the front-runner Caio Ibelli of Brazil removed from the contention for the event title a
couple of heats earlier, the opportunity was wide open for the Australian to go for the big honour.
Squaring off with Macdonald in the ninth heat of Round 3, Parkes continued to exhibit his dominating form. In the opening minutes of the heat, he unloaded a series of exquisite tricks on a juicy wave to earn an 8.17 for the effort. A few minutes later, he
added an additional 5.43 to his account to move to a heat-total of 13.60 points.
Macdonald put on a strong fight, but failed to take away the lead from Parkes. Collecting 6.50 points off his first business-wave and backing it up with a 5.57-point wave, he eventually finished 1.53 points short of the required score.
The 10th heat turned out to be a low-scoring affair with Ohashi and Van Zyl struggling to find a decent score off their waves.
As the heat kicked off, Ohashi drew first blood after locking his first business-wave to post a 4.17 on the score-board. Van Zyl got off to a modest start, scoring 3.17 points off his first business-wave to trail behind his Japanese competitor.
As the heat progressed, Ohashi added an additional 4.60 points to his account, moving to a heat-total of 8.77 points. The two-wave total hardly seemed like a decisive score, but a disappointing performance by Van Zyl for a heat-total of 6.00 points allowed
the Japanese to walk away with top honours.
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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