Hanalei’s Melamed first Hawai‘i surfer to exit contest

In a major upset yesterday at the Quiksilver ISA World Jr. Surfing Championships, Venuzuela’s Rafael Pereira knocked USA’s Dillon Perillo and Kaua‘i’s Dylan Melamed out of the competition.

All teams have now lost at least one competitor from the event and four countries share equal first place n defending world junior champions Hawai‘i, and Australia, South Africa and France.

Hanalei’s Melamed is Hawai‘i’s first loss of a team member from the contest and they now have 11 remaining to help defend their world junior title. The eight-day competition continues until Sunday when gold medals will be decided in three divisions.

The scores of the top three athletes per division are added to reach the final ranking to decide the World Junior Surfing Champion Team, a title currently held by Hawai‘i.

The 27 countries competing in the event (in order of their placing in last year’s contest) are Hawai‘i, Brazil, USA, Australia, South Africa, France, New Zealand, Tahiti, United Kingdom, Peru, Portugal, Japan, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Barbados, Jamaica, Chile, Canada, Italy, Germany, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Spain, Sweden and Uruguay.