Lone Aussie man standing after The Box delivers carnage
Murray Wenzel |
Jacob Willcox kept the Australian flag flying and Crosby Colapinto secured his place on tour as The Box delivered high-consequence surfing at the Margaret River Pro.
Action returned to the heavy slab break, instead of Main Break, for the first time since 2019 for Wednesday’s men’s round-of-16.
And it produced a day of pulsating action, Griffin Colaptino’s early nine-point wave, Barron Mamiya’s 15.17 total, Willcox’s lone Australian hand and Jordy Smith’s (17.33) clinic the highlights among a series of heavy wipeouts.
Colapinto (16.00) knocked out Australian Mikey McDonagh (2.43), with West Australian Willcox’s comfortable defeat of Brazil’s Joao Chianca leaving him as the sole local hope in the final eight.
Colapinto’s younger brother Crosby then hung on in a low-scoring, emotional heat with Jackson Bunch that determined who survived the mid-season cut.
His 6.53 total was enough to oust the Hawaiian (3.34) and set up a quarterfinal with Willcox.
Bigger swell is tipped in coming days, but mostly off-shore, with no surfing on Thursday and the next call on Friday morning.
Alive and waiting in the round-of-16 as one of five Australian women, Sally Fitzgibbons needs at least a quarter-final appearance to avoid a third straight top 10 mid-season cut.
AAP
