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Surf team finish just outside top ten
by George Mojo
14/05/2007:// The Great Britain surf team finish just outside of the top 10 at the Quiksilver World Junior Championships in Portugal.
The U18 boys and girls teams picked up nearly half of the 4,390 overall points gained at the contest.
The GB team were more than 3,000 points behind overall event winners Australia.
Solid performances were put in by Dane Hall, Gwen Spurlock and Jayce Robinson, from St Ives.
The result is improvement of three places from last year's 14th place.
Tyson Greenaway, the team coach, believes we can go one better next year and break into the top ten: "It's been a reasonably successful few days out in Portugal, and, as always, it's great for our best young surfers to see what's going on at the top level.
"With a bit more backing from a big sponsor or two, I think the group of surfers we've got coming through can take us up a place or two next time," he added.
But it was Australia who made their mark with a solid all-round performance.
In a thrilling day for junior surfing, team Australia and two of its young stars took home gold medals from Costa de Caparica.
Australia's Sally Fitzgibbons and Garrett Parkes are the new Quiksilver ISA World Junior Champions in the Girls Under 18 division and the Boys Under 16's respectively, while their squad blew away the competition to take a second consecutive Team World Championship.
Brazil's Jadson André scored the gold in the Under 18 Boys and led his nation to a silver in the overall team race.
For the first time in surfing's history, the ISA judging panel included eight judges.
During the final two days of competition, all 8 logged in scores with the top and two lowest scores being dropped. The feedback for this innovation was entirely positive.
Brazil won the team silver followed by Hawaii's bronze and New Zealand's copper.
Hawaii won the ISA Aloha Cup tag team contest followed by Australia, France and South Africa.
The event was notable for its exuberance and vitality and the sentiment on the beach was that this was the best ever event in the history of junior surfing.
Each team enthusiastically waved their nations' colorful flags on the beach for each heat and, by the end, many surfers were seen in the uniforms of other teams - evidence of the strong friendships forged here.
Adding to the positive vibes, the host team of Portugal also donated a surfboard to a competitor from Morocco, Amine El Jaffy, who could not afford one, and came to Portugal without competition equipment.
ISA President Fernando Aguerre awarded the surfers their medals in the event's closing ceremony.
He was ecstatic about the success of this international event where everyone involved shared the ISA spirit of working together for a better world.
"Congratulations to all the competitors and teams for all their efforts in Portugal," said Aguerre.
The location of the 2008 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships has not yet been chosen but Aguerre revealed locations in France, Costa Rica and Ecuador are all in the running, with the final decision to be announced by June 15, 2007.
The 2008 Beachley Classic got underway this morning, completing Rounds 1 and 2 as well as the opening two heats of Round 3 at nearby Freshwater Beach in clean two-to-three foot (1 metre) waves
Layne Beachley (AUS), 36, has officially announced her retirement from full-time competition, effective at the end of the year
Former Exeter University student Josh Lewin first heat at the Ocean and Earth Pro in the Canary Islands has been delayed because the 2ft surf was deemed uncontestable
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