Vasco Ribeiro and Wade Carmichael surge into Round 4 of Billabong ASP World Junior Championships
Portugal’s Vasco Ribeiro prevailed over Brazil’s Caue Wood in the seventh heat, while Australia’s Wade Carmichael took a surprising win over Brazil’s Caio Ibelli in the eighth heat of Billabong Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Junior Championships’ Round 3 that continued at the iconic Burleigh Heads in Gold Coast, Australia, on Thursday, January 26.
Ribeiro and Carmichael advanced to the fourth round of the competition thanks to their impressive wins, while bringing the completion to an end for Wood and the front-runner for the ASP World Junior Title, Ibelli.
The latest day of the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships was turning to be full of exhilarating surfing action, thanks to high-performance four-foot waves on offer at the primary event site.
Making a strong come-back in the second round, both Ribeiro and Wood hardly had any time to relax as they found themselves competing in yet another battle for survival.
As the heat kicked off, Wood drew first blood with a rather disappointing 3.50-point wave and went on to add 4.40 points to his account, taking his heat-total to 7.90 points.
Ribeiro did not have much luck with the waves either, but managed to collect a 5.83 and 4.87-point wave to finish with a resultant heat-total of 10.70 points, thus sealing the fate of the battle in his favour.
The next heat featured the biggest upset of the day as Ibelli, current No.2 on the ASP World Junior Rankings, was forced to make an early exit from the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships due to a remarkable performance by Carmichael.
As the battle got underway, Ibelli got off to a solid start, locking his first business-wave to post a 7.23 on the score-board. However, Carmichael moved past him on the score-board with a 7.33-point wave.
The Australian extended his lead even further by adding a 6.00 to his account to take his heat-total to 13.33 points. Ibelli desperately searched for an adequate response, but to no avail. He eventually finished with a heat-total of 12.83 points. As a result, he was forced to surrender victory to Carmichael, sending the latter into the next round.
“I'm pretty frothing!” Carmichael said after the heat. “I just wanted to get some good waves and this was the first heat I've had at this contest on the good tide with some nice waves, so it's good to get a win. I just wanted to get a good score early to put some pressure on him, then I was able to find a couple of good backup waves. My jet-ski nearly flipped and I fell off the back and then I lost priority in the last 30 seconds, so I was pretty nervous, but it all worked out.”
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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