For immediate release
28th November 2023
From: Surfing New Zealand
Sport: International Surfing
Event: 2023 ISA World Junior Surfing Championship
Divisions: Under 18 and 16 Boys and Girls
Date: November 24-3 December
Location: Praia da Macumba, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Websites: ISA World Juniors and Surfing New Zealand
Kiwi Girls Shine at Macumba Beach
The New Zealand Junior Surfing Team were spurred on by a standout performance from Tayla Green at the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships today (Tuesday ), the young surfer advancing into the 3rd main round of the event.
Highly consistent three-to-four-foot peaks at Praia da Macumba provided endless opportunity for Main Round 2 to run in each division, along with Repechage Round 1 in Girl’s U/18 and both Boy’s divisions.
Green who blew her opposition out of the water was supported by Anna Brock (Mount) who fought back in the repechage round of the Under 18 Girls Division to comfortably win her Repechage heat. Speaking post heat Anna commented “It felt great get the win, waves were tricky in my heat with the full tide, but nice to find a couple of waves and get the result for our team. Looking forward to my next heat and giving it my best”.
On her first time to Brazil Brock of Mount Maunganui only had great things to say. “We have an awesome team here and the team support has been incredible. Brazil is a great place to visit, I am really enjoying being amongst their culture as well as meeting surfers from other countries”.
Unfortunately, Pia Rogers of Whangamata struggled to find enough waves with scoring potential and needing a 5.8 to progress she placed 4th in her Round 2 heat.
Day three produced the best conditions yet at Macumba Beach, Brazil with the offshore winds blowing for much of the day, grooming the clean 1.0m swell. The Kiwis still had to hunt out the elusive peeling waves with the vast majority waves only allowing for short rides.
Piha’s Leia Millar had earlier finished second in her heat in the first round but unfortunately could not keep up the momentum. Millar was left chasing a 5.2-point ride in the dying stages of the heat, a solid score in the conditions of the day placing her in 3rd.
Pauanui ‘s Lola Groube however relished in the conditions and after a fantastic effort winning her first-round heat earlier, she backed it up with a second-place finish in round 2. Groube required a 4.64 to win the heat.
Tao Mouldey (Mount) could not back up his day two performance and after an incredibly close heat he was bumped into the Under 16 Boys Division repechage rounds with a fourth-place finish today.
In Repechage 1 of the Under 16 Boys it was Dunedin local Alexis Owen who took inspiration from his team mates to dominate his opponents from Norway and Puerto Rico surfing to a 1st place finish, a man of few words Owens commented “Yea I’m happy with my heat, nerves had settled from the first round and I’m looking forward to the next one”.
Theo Morse surfed the final heats of the day he got off to a quick start getting a 3.77 straight off the buzzer. A few minutes later he was up again on a clean midsized right hander backing up his first wave with a 2.87. He continued to Battle it out with Reimundo Berry of Chile but eventually placed 2nd sending him to the repechage.
In the Under 18 Boys division, it was Navryn Malone who surfed his Round 2 heat in the early hours (NZT) of the morning. Unfortunately, Malone struggled to find waves with excellent scoring potential finishing the heat with a 6.63 whilst Brazilian Luan Ferreyra dominated the heat with a 13.5 heat total. With this result Navryn will surf in the Repechage Round tomorrow.
Kalani Louis of Taranaki unfortunately suffered the same fate as his team mate over on podium 2 and after a good start he failed to find a wave that would allow him to progress requiring just a 2.2 to advance. It was Ollie Gould (CIS) who kept Louis at bay taking win by just 0.93.
With an unfavourable forecast for Macumba Beach the ISA has decided that repechage rounds will be scrapped so that they can finish the event. Every round from now on is elimination, surfers that advance out of repechage 2 will move back in the main round.
The 2023 WJSC will continue tomorrow at 6:30 am BRT at Praia da Macumba.
All Surfers in the New Zealand team will surf on Day 4 except for Lola and Tayla
Please see below for the day 4 schedule
Podium 1
1 REPECHAGE BOYS UNDER 18
Spencer Rowson Heat 7
2 REPECHAGE GIRLS UNDER 18
Anna Brock Heat 4
Pia Rogers Heat 6
2 REPECHAGE BOYS UNDER 18
Heat 1 Kalani Louis
Heat 15 Navryn Malone
Podium 2
1 REPECHAGE GIRLS UNDER 16
Alani Morse Heat 8
2 REPECHAGE BOYS UNDER 16
Alexis Owen Heat 2
Tao Mouldey Heat 8
Theo Morse Heat 15
2 REPECHAGE GIRLS UNDER 16
Heat 3 Leia Millar
Tayla Green will have a day off and be up again in round 3 Heat 8
Lola Groube will also have the day off and will be in heat 5 round 3
About the event
The team is competing at the 2023 ISA World Junior Championship being held at Praia da Macumba, Brazil November 24-3 December.
In 2022 the New Zealand Team placed 13th
The championship is the largest junior surfing event in the world playing host to over 365 surfers from 46 nations in 2023.
You can view the livestream of the event here
The schedule can be found here
About International Surfing Association (ISA)
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the World Governing Authority for surfing, bodyboarding, SUP 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.
Further Information
For further information on the New Zealand Junior Surfing Team please contact Surfing New Zealand’s Ben Kennings on 021 2278732 or email benkennings@surfingnz.co.nz.
Imagery
High resolution action images of team members will be available to media free of charge upon request.
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