Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Beckford advances at World Surfing Games

Published:Friday | June 2, 2023 | 12:39 AMLennox Aldred/Gleaner Writer
Jamaica’s Elishama Beckford (second left) speaks to his teammates Icah Wilmot (left), Imani Wilmot (second right) and Javaun Brown after competing in the opening round on yesterday’s day two of the International Surfing Association’s World Surfing Ga
Jamaica’s Elishama Beckford (second left) speaks to his teammates Icah Wilmot (left), Imani Wilmot (second right) and Javaun Brown after competing in the opening round on yesterday’s day two of the International Surfing Association’s World Surfing Games in EL Salvador.

LA BOCANA, El Salvador

Jamaica’s Elishama Beckford became the second surfer to advance to the second round of the International Surfing Association (ISA) World Surfing Games (WSG) following day two action at the La Bocana Surf spot in Surf City, El Salvador.

Beckford finished in the second automatic qualifying spot in Heat 29 after convincing the judges to give him two best scores of 5.17 on his opening wave and 4.57 on his second for a total of 9.74.

Australia’s Ethan Ewing was the most impressive in the heat and took it with a score of 13.67. The Dominican Republic’s Christian Padilla will have to try and advance from the repechage round after finishing third following a score of 7.43.

For Beckford, the conditions were respectable as he did what was needed to move through the rounds.

“Conditions were good out there even though the waves were a bit smaller than the practice days, but I was feeling confident and did what I had to do by working with what the ocean was giving me, and so it’s on to the next round,” said Beckford.

Debutant teammate Javaun Brown wasn’t as lucky as he was eliminated from the main rounds after registering one score of 3.07 to finish third and out of the automatic qualifying spot.

Brown was penalised and docked points for priority interference and the Portland-based surfer said his first international heat was a lesson learnt.

“I was a bit nervous, too, but I went out and did my best. The conditions were not that perfect in my heat, but that’s just the ocean for you. I made a mistake and lost one of my waves, but we are all humans and I will come back in the repechage round.”

In the meantime, veteran surfer Icah Wilmot failed to move to the third round after being eliminated in his late-evening second-round heat.

Wilmot’s two best waves of 3.00 and 2.37 were good enough for a score of 5.37, which placed him fourth in the heat, which went to Alonso Correa of Peru, who chalked up a score of 10.20. Edoardo Papa of Italy secured the second automatic spot to the third round.