In a thrilling day for junior surfing, Australia won the Team Event and two of its young stars took gold on the final day of the 2007 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in Costa de Caparica, Portugal.
Sally Fitzgibbons took the Girls Under 18 division, while the Australian team blew away the competition to take a their second Team World Championship title in a row.
The final day offered solid 3-5 foot waves – the best surf of the 8 day event – and each final featured spectacular showdowns in the “Junior Olympics of Surfing”.
South Africa had a poor tournament, failing to produce a finalist in any of the divisions for the first time.
After a great performance in the semi-final of the Aloha Cup, South Africa were unable to keep the momentum going, and were unsuccessful in defending the title won in 2006.
To crown a week of pain South Africa dropped from fourth place to seventh in the overall team standings.
It was a particulary satisfying event for New Zealand, who beat South Africa in the Lotto SANZ Challenge in a warm up event 10 days ago, and then went on to take the fourth spot that South Africa had held since 2003.
The Under 18 Girl’s final was dominated by Fitzgibbons, who avenged her last second defeat in Maresias, Brazil last year. The silky smooth surfer admitted that her disappointment in Brazil was a motivating factor in her win.
“Last year I was winning, but then went down in the last 20 seconds of the event,” Fitzgibbons said.
“It was a devastating loss, but it made me focus on surfing to the best of my ability this year. The level of girls surfing has been so high here and it made me lift my performance,” Fitzgibbons continued.
Fitzgibbons finished ahead of team-mate Laura Enever, while Sage Erickson (USA), Paige Hareb (New Zealand) took the bronze and copper medals respectively.
The 2007 ISA World Junior Surfing Championships 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’ colourful flags during for each and every heat, and on the final day many surfers were seen in the uniforms of other teams – evidence of the strong friendships forged during the eight days of comradeship.
ISA President Fernando Aguerre awarded the surfers their medals at the closing ceremony and was ecstatic about the success of this international event where everyone involved shared the ISA spirit of working together for a better surfing world.
“Congratulations to all the competitors and teams for all their efforts in Portugal,” said Aguerre. “The participants and judges did an excellent job.
“I would also like to thank Quiksilver for its strong support of junior surfing and the Caparica Surfing Club for its help in hosting the event. With great pleasure I announce we will be back in Portugal in October 2008 for the ISA World Games.”
The location of the 2008 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships has not yet been chosen but Aguerre said that France, Costa Rica and Ecuador are all in the running, and that the final decision on who the hosts will be will be announced by June 15, 2007.
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