Surfers finish 6th in Euros
The European Junior Surfing Championships concluded on the Sunday after a week of competition in Santa Cruz, Portugal and there were a number of locals taking part.
France won the team title followed by Spain 2nd and Portugal 3rd. Ireland finished 6th out of 17 nations competing.
The Irish Junior Surf Team was led by Manager, Shauna Ward (Bundoran Board Riders) and Coaches, Jason Southcombe (Co Sligo Surf Club) and Andrew Kilfeather (Co Sligo Surf Club). Team Judge, Gavin McCrea (Rossnowlagh Surf Club) was on duty through to Finals Day where he judged several of the Grand Finals.
In the U18 Bodyboard Joe Breen (Tbay Surf Club) and Neil McCarthy (Bundoran Board Riders) put in excellent performances with Neil finishing 9th and Joe only missing out on a finals place, finishing 7th. Una Britton (Rossnowlagh Surf Club) too, had a great run in the U18 Girls Bodyboard to match Joe’s 7th place finish.
Finn Richardson (West Coast Surf Club) went all the way to 8th place in the U16 Bodyboard while teammate Ben Maher (Tbay Surf Club) finished 16th.
In the 18 Longboard, 13-year-old Luke Ennis (Tbay Surf Club) has to be commended on his performance finishing 8th overall.
In the surfing categories, the U18 Boys were pushed up the rankings with Sam Reichel (Co Sligo Surf Club) finishing 11th and Jack Scott (Rossnowalgh Surf Club) 15th.
The U16 Boys, Joe Breen (Tbay Surf Club) and Eoin Lally (Bundoran Board Riders) finished 21st and 25th respectively.
The youngest team member, Conor Donegan Santos (West Coast Surf Club) finished 9th while Finn Richardson (West Coast Surf Club) also competing in U14 Surf bowed out in 13th.
In the U18 Girls, Una Britton (Rossnowalgh Surf Club) and Sasha Moore (Tbay Surf Club) finished 18th and 22nd respectively.
One of the highlights of the week was Bundoran Board Rider’s Eoin Lally who won the European International Skimboard Championships running alongside Eurosurf Junior. Eoin dominated the European field in the U18 Skimboard event to take the win for Ireland.