Gold Beckons

Thomas King and Justin Bing edged Team SA towards a gold medal on Day 4 of the ISA World Longboard Surfing Championships in Peru on Thursday when they both advanced through tough heats to reach the last 10 in the Men’s division of the inaugural edition of the event.

King reached the final of the qualifying stream with an excellent showing where he placed second to Edouard Delpero (FRA) and relegated Hawaiian standout Ned Snow to the repecharge rounds in a fiercely contested, high scoring Round 4 clash.

The Capetonian is now just one heat away from the Men’s Grand Final and an individual medal. Even if he slips out of the top two in his next heat he still has another chance to reach the Grand Final via the repecharge final.

Bing (Noordhoek), who dropped into the repercharge rounds on Day 1, also placed second in his Round 5 heat, finishing behind former ASP World Longboard champ Phil Rajzman (BRA) as the pair eliminated reigning ISA World Longboard champion Toni Silvagni (USA) from the event. Bing must place first or second in three more heats to reach the Men’s Grand Final.

With Simone Robb (Kommetjie) and Ethan Pentz (Kalk Bay) already into the qualifying finals of the Women’s and Junior’s divisions respectively, Team SA, France and Hawaii are the only teams with all four members still in the event and in contention for the team gold medal.

Host nation Peru with three competitors and Brazil and Argentina with two each are the other nations challenging for a medal. Traditional surfing power USA in eighth place with one surfer left while perennial ISA team gold medallists Australia have none and sit in an unfamiliar 10th place in the provisional rankings going into the last two days of the event.

All four South Africans will be in action in the long rolling waves at Huanchaco today.

The ISA World Longboard Surfing Championships end on Saturday when the top teams and individual performers in the Men, Women and Junior (U18) divisions will earn gold, silver, copper and bronze medals.

Catch the finals live tomorrow, Saturday, at http://isawlc.com starting at 2.40pm South African time.