Kaito Ohashi and Vasco Ribeiro dominant in Round 2 of Billabong ASP World Junior Championships
Japan’s Kaito Ohashi and Portugal’s Vasco Ribeiro successfully extended their life in Billabong Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Junior Championships after clinching top honours in their respective Round 2 heats that went down at the iconic
Burleigh Heads in Gold Coast, Australia, on Monday, January 23.
While Ohashi advanced through into the third round after winning the seventh heat, his competitor William Aliotti from France was forced to make an early exit from the competition.
Brazil’s Deivid Silva also got eliminated from the competition after surrendering victory to Ribeiro in the eighth heat, thus sending the latter into the next round.
The surfing conditions at Burleigh Heads were not exactly ideal, with tricky two-foot waves and on-shore winds. The surfers were forced to rely on their instincts to go for the right wave and make the right selection of the section to grab a big score.
Ohashi adjusted to the conditions exceptionally well and put on a dominating position. Halfway through the seventh heat, he locked his first business-wave to post a 7.27 on the score-board. He followed it up with a massive back-side fins-free waft to add
an impressive 8.87 to his account, thus finishing with a heat-total of 16.14 points.
Aliotti failed to offer any challenge to his Japanese competitor and merely collected a couple of fours off his best-two waves to finish with a heat-total of 9.07 points.
The eighth heat featured a much more intense battle as Ribeiro and Silva took each other in a battle for survival.
Ribeiro took control of the heat in the opening minutes with a near-perfect 9.50-point wave. Silva had no intention of succumbing to the pressure and got busy to search for an adequate response. Scoring a 6.17 off his first business-wave and backing it up
with an impressive 7.40-point wave, the Brazilian managed to enjoy the lead for a while by moving to a heat-total of 13.57 points.
However, Ribeiro performed the coup de grace in the final minutes of the heat with a 6.93-point wave, winning the battle convincingly after finishing 2.86 points ahead of his rival.
“The waves are great so I tried to do my best,” Ribeiro said. “I've got a good board and I caught a long wave, everything came together for me. I'm very happy to be here at the Billabong World Junior Championships, everyone surfs so good, so you always have
to always be at your best.”
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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