Nathan Carvalho and Evan Thompson advance to Round 4 of Billabong ASP World Junior Championships
Hawaii’s Nathan Carvalho and America’s Evan Thompson walked away with top honours from their respective Round 3 heats on Thursday, January 26, to advance through into the fourth round of Billabong Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Junior Championships
at Burleigh Heads in Gold Coast, Australia.
Tasting defeat at the hands of Carvalho in the 13th heat, Brazil’s Marco Fernandez was forced out of the contention for the event title.
New Zealand’s Matt Lewis-Hewitt was also forced to make a premature exit from the competition after conceding victory to Thompson in the 14th heat.
With four-foot waves and slight on-shore winds on offer at the primary event site, the surfers engaged in intense battles for survival.
The 13th heat saw Carvalho take on Fernandez, the fourth seed and top contender for the ASP World Junior Title. The latter had been quite impressive during the opening round of the competition, but was outdone by his Hawaiian competitor in his latest heat.
As the battle got underway, the Hawaii-based Carvalho got off to a modest start, earning 4.67 points off his first business-wave. However, he backed it up with an impressive 7.50-point wave to move to a heat-total of 12.17 points.
Fernandez made his rival’s score look more intimidating than it actually was through his lacklustre performance. Scoring a mere 3.93 off his first business-wave and later adding an additional 4.77 off his second business-wave, the Brazilian finished with a
disappointing heat-total of 8.70 points, thus surrendering victory to Carvalho.
“That was fun! I decided to stay and surf out the back because the waves were bigger,” Carvalho said after the heat. “I got a couple on the outside bank and was able to work them through and that's what won me the heat. I heard that Marco [Fernandez] was one
of the top seeds, but it's anyone's game out there really, you just have to get the good ones.”
The next heat saw Thompson square off with Lewis-Hewitt, replacing Australia’s Davey Cathels, current No.1 on the ASP World Junior Rankings, who was forced to miss the event due to an ankle injury.
As the 14th heat got underway, Thompson collected a 4.33 and 6.10 off his best-two waves to finish with a two-wave total of 10.43 points.
Lewis-Hewitt got off to a promising start, posting a 5.17 on the score-board. However, he failed to back it up with another decent score and added a mere 3.33 to his account to finish with a resultant heat-total of 8.50 points, allowing Thompson to walk away
with a convincing victory.
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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