Surfing: Locals face fight at junior world champs

Mt Maunganui's Jordan Griffin and Mackenzie Christie will have to fight their way through the repechage rounds after falling in their qualifying heats at the world junior surfing championships in Panama yesterday.

Only two Kiwi surfers remain in the qualifying rounds after the third of eight days of competition.

The Rip Curl New Zealand team battled hard on day three, with Elliot Paerata-Reid (Piha) and Ella Williams (Whangamata) remaining in the qualifying rounds. But seven of their teammates, including Griffin and Christie, dropped back into the repechage rounds.

Surfing in the third round, Christie initially got a good start to his heat, but fell on a crucial wave that would have seen him in a strong position to move through to the final 16 surfers in the under-18 boys. Christie finished his heat in third behind France's Tommy Boucaut and Trevor Thornton (US).

Griffin put up a good fight to move through to the third round after finishing second in his qualifying round in the under-16 boys before he too was ousted into the repechage after a fourth place finish in round three.

Paerata-Reid surfed the closest heat of the entire event in the third round, eventually placing second to Japan's Takumi Nakamura. He got a buzzer-beating wave to equal up the scores with the heat frontrunners and progress through to the final 16 surfers in the qualifying rounds of the under-16 boys.

"I got hassled hard at the beginning by the kid from Argentina and missed two good waves, then I got a 5.23 and needed like a 4.13 and was getting hassled so hard that I paddled up the beach. I caught a wave with 30 seconds remaining and got the 4.13 and progressed on a countback. I was so lucky."

He finished with a 9.36 point heat total out of a possible 20 points, equal with the Argentinian surfer Filipe Suarez.

However, by way of his highest scoring ride of 5.23 points being better than the Argentinian's (5.03), he progressed in second place behind Nakamura, who was 0.01 points ahead.

Williams was the second surfer to survive the qualifying rounds, blitzing her heat with an 11.90 point heat score to beat her opponents from Japan, Mexico and Brazil.