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Team South Africa remains on track to claim a historic third successive team title at the ISA World Masters Surfing Championships in Panama after the completion of the fifth day of competition yesterday (Thursday) when the finalists in the qualifying streams of the Masters, Grand Masters and Kahunas were determined..
SA, along with Australia and Brazil, still has all eight team members in contention in their various divisions with four South Africans and Australians yet to lose a heat, followed by three each from Puerto Rico, Peru and Brazil and one each from Panama, France and Tahiti.
In the Masters (o/35) division, Andrew Banks (Port Shepstone) advanced to the qualifying final along with heat winner Carlos Santos (BRA). These two will be up against two-time defending champion Juan Ashton (PUR) and Dean Hall (AUS) who relegated Wayne Monk (East London) to the repecharge rounds.
The top two in the qualifying finals advance to the Grand Final where they are guaranteed medals and a shot at clinching the World Masters title.
In the Grand Masters (o/40) division, Rob Moore-Boyle (Durban) couldn’t find the high scoring waves and joined Andre Malherbe (East London) in Heat 2 of repecharge Round 4. Malherbe, who has fought his way through two rounds of sudden-death repecharge heats already, posted a strong second place finish behind defending champion Magoo de la Rosa (PER) yesterday.
David, the elder of the Malherbe brothers, continued his rich vein of form at the event by winning his Kahunas (o/45) Round 3 heat yesterday, finishing ahead of Rod Baldwin (AUS) with SA team captain and defending ISA World Kahunas champion Marc Wright (Durban) in third place.
Malherbe and Baldwin will take on Sergio Penna and Martin Jeri (PER) for a place in the Grand final while Wright now has to fight his way through three cutthroat repecharge heats to reach the Grand final and the opportunity to defend his crown.
Defending world champions Heather Clark (Port Shepstone) in the Women’s Masters (o/35) and Chris Knutsen (Durban) in the Grand Kahunas (o/50) did not need to compete yesterday as they have already reached the qualifying final in their respective divisions.
All of the 52 surfers from 14 countries remaining in the ISA World Masters Championships will be in action today. Action at Santa Catalina in Panama will get underway at 7:00am (2pm in South Africa) with the following schedule:
ISA World Masters Surfing Championships
Schedule for Friday 3 September (South Africans in Brackets)
2 HEATS MASTERS REPERCHARGE 4 (Wayne Monk)
2 HEATS KAHUNAS REPERCHARGE 4 (Marc Wright)
2 HEATS GRAND MASTERS REPERCHARGE 4 (Andre Malherbe & Rob Moore-Boyle)
1 HEATS MASTERS QUALIFY 4 (Andrew Banks)
1 HEATS KAHUNAS QUALIFY 4 (David Malherbe)
1 HEATS GRAND MASTERS QUALIFY 4
1 HEATS GRAND KAHUNA QUALIFY 3 (Chris Knutsen)
1 HEATS WOMEN MASTERS QUALIFY 3 (Heather Clark)
1 HEATS GRAND KAHUNAS REPERCHARGE 3
1 HEATS WOMEN MASTERS REPERCHARGE 3
1 HEATS MASTERS REPERCHARGE 5 (TBD)
1 HEATS KAHUNAS REPERCHARGE 5 (TBD)
1 HEATS GRAND MASTERS REPERCHARGE 5 (TBD)
Country standings after five days of competition:
1: SOUTH AFRICA
1: AUSTRALIA
1: BRAZIL
4: PERU
5: PUERTO RICO
6: ARGENTINA
7: VENEZUELA
8: COSTA RICA
9: PANAMA
10: FRANCE
11: MEXICO
12: ITALY
13:REP.DOMINCAN
14: JAMAICA
15: URUGUAY
16: NEW ZEALAND
17: GUATEMALA
18: TAHITI
18: EL SALVADOR
20: GERMANY
20: IRELAND
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