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Australia wins for the third time in a row
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Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship
May 31st, 2008
Plage du Penon, Seignosse, France
The Australian surfing team has won the most prestigious tournament on the
planet for surfers under the age of 18, the Quiksilver ISA World Junior
Surfing Championship, for the third consecutive time. This historic deed was
achieved in the perfect waves of Le Penon beach. They provided the best
conditions of the entire event, with large and perfect four to six foot
faces.
Today four rounds of the repercharge and one of the main event in each
division were held to determine surfers for the grand finals. The gold in
the Under 18 Boys was won by the Brazilian, Alejo Muniz, in the Under 16
Boys by Tamaroa McComb of Tahiti, and in the Girls’, by Laura Enever of
Australia, all of whom were crowned ISA World Junior Champions.
Alejo’s comeback
In the 2006 Quiksilver ISA Junior event in Brazil, Alejo Muniz, competing at
home in the Under 16 division, was defeated by Owen Wright. Today Alejo he
did not disappoint in the final, in which he faced his 2006 rival, as well
as Hawaiian, Tyler Newton, and French local surfer, Marc Lacomare.
Muniz started the heat with a low scoring 3.2, while Wright notched up an
8.5 on a left that was packed with manoeuvres. The Brazilian then responded
to this with a 9.2 and took the lead. However, the Australian did not give
up and caught a peeling right, which he capitalized on to score a 7.14.
Meanwhile, the two other surfers in the final could not quite enter the fray.
Halfway through the heat, the Brazilian caught a good right, on which he
pulled off two huge cutbacks, a powerful off-the-lip and then continued
working it to the shore to score an 8.18, giving him a total of 17.38 and
leaving Wright needing an 8.89. He almost achieved this when, with 8 minutes
remaining, he caught another left on which he scored a 7.78.
The ocean did not deliver many more good waves after that and when the final
horn sounded, the Brazilian was on top, and became the new ISA World
Champion. The crowd of Brazilian supporters on the shoreline erupted with
cheers and applause and ran to Alejo when he reached the shore.
Overpowered with joy, carried on his shoulder by his Team Manager Ottoney
Xavier, Muniz, who was born in Argentina and naturalized Brazilian in 2006,
exclaimed: “I am really happy. I cannot believe it. I fought hard for my
place in the team. It was my last year as a Junior and I won, I can’t
believe it!”
He commented further, that “It was a really difficult heat against three
really strong surfers. I had already lost to Owen twice in the competition
and two years ago in the final in Brazil, so today it was my time to get
back…”
From Runner-up to Champion
Tahitian Tamaroa McComb, had a year to prepare and to wait to reach the
pinnacle of world Junior surfing. Having placed second in the contest last
year in Portugal, he began this year’s competition as a firm favourite
contender, reaching the final after having scored some of the highest scores
of the event.
However, an obstacle blocked his path along the way, Brazilian Peterson
Crisanto, who defeated him twice in successive heats on the way to the grand
final. Nevertheless the Tahitian picked up his top form in the final heat,
and won in a somewhat tight final.
Tamaroa began with an 8.10 that slotted him into first place. Peterson
scored a lesser 6.20. A few minutes later, the Tahitian scored a near-perfect
9.10 after having executed a huge off-the-lip, followed by five big
manoeuvres that took him all the way to the beach. Not to be defeated, the
Brazilian then scored a high but insufficient 7.54, which left him searching
for a very difficult 9.66.
Crisanto very nearly got the score when he pulled off two stylish roundhouse
cutbacks, a tailslide 360 and two off-the-lips onto the sand, which gave the
Brazilian a 9.62, just 0.04 below what he required. With this score, he
needed precisely 7.92, which he never quite found, and then the Tahitian
began to really make his mark.
The Tahitian fans screamed in celebration and a very calm McComb commented,
“I can’t really explain how I feel. I am so happy, I am the World Champion,
and it feels good!’ With regards to his tactics he said, “I just went out
there and tried to catch my two waves quickly and stay close to Crisanto.”
Hawaiian Matty Costa finished third place and Ian Fontaine from France in
fourth.
The Girls brought victory to Australia
The last final of the day included Australians Laura Enever and Tyler Wright,
New Zealander Airini Mason and American Courtney Conlogue.
Three countries were still in contention to win the Team Gold medal:
Australia, Brazil and the USA. The result was depending on the girls final
outcome.
Enever and Wright fiercely battled in the heat, not letting the other girls
ever got close enough. Enever scored 13.76 and Wright 13.56, leaving
Conlogue third and Mason fourth.
Clearly delighted, the very personable Enever said, “I am so happy! Having
finished second last year, I wanted to come here and better my result and to
have done it is a dream come true!” On her strategy for the grand final,
Enever commented, “I simply concentrated on looking for the best waves as I
knew the other surfers were excellent. Luckily those waves came to me and
things went well.”
Australian Domination
Completing the sixth edition of the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing
Championship, Australia now have their fourth and third back to back World
Junior Title, confirming their domination of junior surfing.
The ISA Makes History
Once again the International Surfing Association used an eight judge pannel.
It was first used for the first time in history in the 2007 Quiksilver ISA
World Junior in Portugal. The average score from this eight judges clearly
produces a better average score than using the traditional five judge pannel.
It will be used also when surfing is included in the Olympic and similar
Games.
Medal and Closing Ceremony
Once the competition was over, the medal ceremony took place, with the
playing of the national anthems of the gold medalists countries.
The President of the ISA, Fernando Aguerre, spoke about the championships
and his hopes for Ecuador in 2009.
“What a great week! One hour before the Opening Ceremony, it was raining
very hard, but just before we began it, the sun came out. Today we had rain
all morning, but just before the Medal Ceremony, the sun came out. The karma
of the ISA is very good…” said the President.
He added, “Surfing is so alive and full of energy. The day after tomorrow,
during Sports Accord and International Olympic Committee meeting in Athens,
I will continue on my campaign to get surfing into the Olympic Games. It is
only a matter of time. The next ISA World Juniors will be in March, 2009 in
Ecuador, but first we will convene for the ISA World Surfing Games in
Portugal in October of this year.”
World Junior Champions
Gold: Australia
Silver: Brazil
Bronze: Hawaii
Copper: USA
Results Boys Under 18
Gold: Alejo Muniz (BRA)
Silver: Owen Wright (AUS)
Bronze: Tyler Newton (HAW)
Copper: Marc Lacomare (FRA)
Results Girls’ Under 18
Gold: Laura Enever (AUS)
Silver: Tyler Wright (AUS)
Bronze: Courtney Conlogue (USA)
Copper: Airini Mason (NZL)
Results Boys Under 16
Gold: Tamaroa McComb (TAH)
Silver: Peterson Crisanto (BRA)
Bronze: Matty Costa (HAW)
Copper: Ian Fontaine (FRA)
Aloha Cup
Gold: New Zealand
Silver: Australia
Bronze: France
Copper: South Africa
Live feeds will run from
www.quiksilver.com
Or via www.isasurf.org or www.isaworldchamp.com
For further info and free high resolution photos, please contact:
Pablo@isasurf.org
PHOTOS
Usage-free high quality images of today’s parade and each day’s events will
be available for worldwide press use at:
www.quiksilver-press.com Login: pressroom / password: quiksilverpress
VIDEO
Daily high-resolution video sequences will be available for free usage by TV
on a dedicated FTP server. http://inside-media.fr/isa2008
A 3-minute sequence of today’s highlights will be available from 8pm.
About International Surfing Association (ISA):
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is recognized by the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the World Governing Authority for
surfing, bodyboarding and surfriding. It was originally founded as the
International Surfing Federation in 1964 and has been running world
championships since 1964 and the Junior World Championships since 1980.
ISA membership includes the surfing National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of over
50 countries on six continents. Its headquarters are located in San Diego,
California. It is presided by Fernando Aguerre, first elected in 1994 in Rio,
and re-elected six times since. The ISA's four Vice Presidents are Alan
Atkins (Australia), Robin de Kock (South Africa), Maile Aguerre (Hawaii) and
Mike Gerard (USA).
