Ian Gouveia and Wade Carmichael power into Billabong ASP World Junior Championships’ Quarter-finals
Brazil’s Ian Gouveia downed America’s Conner Coffin in the third heat, while Australia’s Wade Carmichael comfortably prevailed over Portugal’s Vasco Ribeiro in the fourth heat of Billabong Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Junior Champions’
Round 4 that continued at the renowned Burleigh Heads in Gold Coast, Australia, on Friday, January 27.
Gouveia and Carmichael advanced through into the Quarter-finals after winning their respective Round 4 heats, while the competition and thus the ASP World Junior Tour came to an end for Coffin and Ribeiro.
Both Gouveia and Coffin were still in contention for the ASP World Junior Title prior to their face-off in the third heat on Friday. Only one of the two surfers was going to advance into the next round and thus remain in the race for the title, something
that was expected to make the surfers push themselves to the limit during their bout.
As the third heat began, both the surfers got off to a slow start, clearly finding it hard to adjust to the waves on offer. The stormy conditions had made the waves pretty tricky, causing the surfers a hard time in catching them without losing control.
After going through a series of average wave-scores, Gouveia managed to post a 5.33 on the score-board in the final minutes of the heat. Looking to cement his lead even further, the Brazilian locked his final wave to successfully earn 5.57 points off it,
thus taking his heat-total to 10.90 points.
Despite all the significance of winning the heat, Coffin put on a lacklustre performance, failing to challenge his rival at any point in the heat. Evidently succumbing to the conditions on offer, the American surfer posted a 2.50 and 3.27 on the score-board
to finish with a disappointing heat-total of 5.77 points.
The fourth heat saw Carmichael and Ribeiro take each other on in a crucial battle for the Quarter-final spot. Both the surfers could not afford a hiccup in their performance as a stumble could lead to their elimination from the competition.
Carmichael was definitely high on confidence after defeating Brazil’s Caio Ibelli, the front-runner for the ASP World Junior Title. He used this psychological boost to dominate Ribeiro in the fourth heat.
The surfing conditions were far from ideal, making the job in the sea extremely tough for the surfers. While Ribeiro struggled to warm up to the conditions, Carmichael adjust his style of surfing to the demanding conditions and rocketed off to a good start,
posting a 6.67 on the score-board off his first business-wave. He soon followed it up with a 4.83-point wave to eventually finish with a heat-total of 11.50 points.
In contrast to the Australian’s performance, what Ribeiro had to offer during the course of the contest was nothing short of disappointing. Scoring 3.83 runs off his first business-wave and following it up with a 2.50-point wave, the Portuguese suffered
a bitter defeat. Despite staring at a low heat-total to surpass, Ribeiro found himself finishing 5.17-points short of the required score. As a result, it turned out to be a comfortable win for Carmichael, who moved into the Quarter-finals to face his next
challenge.
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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