Tommy Boucaut and Francisco Alves emerge triumphant in Round 2 of CHIKO Pro Junior – Surfing News
Australia’s Tommy Boucaut and Portugal’s Francisco Alves walked away with top honours in their respective Round 2 (Round of 96) heats of CHIKO Pro Junior at Newcastle’s Surfest that continued at Merewether in New South Wales, Australia, on Thursday, March
8.
The demanding six-foot waves and offshore winds had kept majority of the surfers at bay since the start of the day, making majority of the heats low-scoring affairs. The young talent from around the world clearly had their work cut out for them as they took
each other on in such challenging conditions to stay alive in the 4-Star Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Men’s Junior Qualifying event, which offered them an opportunity to win a prize money of $20,000 as well as the coveted ASP Junior rating points.
The 15th heat of Round 2 pitted Boucaut against his fellow countrymen Ryan Hunt, Julian Flanagan, along with America’s Taylor Thorne.
The battle turned out to be pretty exciting as Boucaut put his local knowledge of the waves to use. Collecting a 5.75 off his first business-wave and backing it up with a 6.60 in the dying minutes of the heat, the Australian surfer clinched victory and consequently
confirmed his place in the next round.
Thorne also advance through into the next round after securing runner-up place with a heat-total of 9.70 points, which comprised of a 5.00 and 4.70-point wave.
Hunt finished third with a heat-total of 5.65 points, which included a 3.75 and 1.90-point wave. Flanagan only managed to post one score on the score-board, a 2.00, as the tough surfing conditions got the better of him. Both Hunt and Flanagan got eliminated
from the competition as a result of their bottom-two finish.
The final heat of Round 2 saw Alves take on Australia’s Shane Campbell, Samuel Rahmate and Nathan Specht.
Alves and Campbell fought tooth-and-nail for top honours. Both the surfers kept each other under pressure throughout the entirety of the heat, breathing down each other’s necks.
However, the Portuguese eventually managed to clinch top honours after getting to a heat-total of 12.65 points, which comprised of a 6.65 and 6.00-point wave.
Campbell had to settle for runner-up place after finishing with a heat-total of 12.25 points, losing the win to his rival by merely 0.40 points.
Rahmate finished in third place with a heat-total of 2.65 points, which included a 1.00 and 1.65-point wave, while Specht rounded out the bottom position with 0.50 points, collecting off his sole wave of the heat.
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