Kea Smith is still alive after battling her way through repechage heats at the World Junior champs in Ecuador yesterday.
Kea Smith is still alive after battling her way through repechage heats at the World Junior champs in Ecuador yesterday.
Mount Maunganui surfers had mixed days at the 2014 Vissla ISA World Junior champs in Ecuador yesterday.
Jonas Tawharu placed second in his match-up in the Under-16 Boys to advance alongside the South African surfer Adin Masencamp.
Earlier in the day, Kehu Butler (Mount) contested his qualifying round heat. Withwaves at a premium, Butler was hustled into submission by the other three surfers who ensured he had limited opportunity to get any high scores.
Butler now joins his three teammates in the repechage rounds and will compete towards the end of today's action.
Also contesting the qualifying rounds was Under-18 Boys Division surfer and team captain Elliot Paerata-Reid (Piha). Unfortunately his heat went the same way as Butler with inconsistent waves forcing Paerata-Reid back to fourth place and into the repechage rounds.
It was two up and two down for the Kiwi girls with Jasmine Smith (Gis) and Elin Tawharu (Mount) both being relegated to the repechage rounds while Britt Kindred (Mur) and Kea Smith (Mount) battled through their repechage heats to reach the final 24 surfers in the event and stay alive for day five of the event.
