Merewether's Morgan Cibilic moved higher into calculations for championship tour qualification with a round-of-16 performance at the 10,000-point Ericeira Pro in Portugal. Cibilic narrowly lost to West Australian Jacob Willcox on Friday night (AEST) but still collected 3700 points for his ninth-placed effort. In just his second full season on the qualifying series, Cibilic was ranked 22nd with 10,570 points before the Ericeira Pro. He climbed to a total of 13,850, from his five best performances of the year, and 16th with his run in Portugal. That is just 650 points outside the qualification line for the 2020 CT heading into the season-ending Hawaiian leg, which features two 10,000-point and two 3000-point contests. On Friday night, Cibilic needed a 7.41 late to beat Willcox in big but slow swell and he put together a strong ride with a minute left on the clock. The judges gave him a 6.6 and he was eliminated 11.83 to 11.03 in the first round of man-on-man heats. The 19-year-old had earlier scraped into the last 16. He was second in his three-man round-four heat behind countryman Cooper Chapman 12.6 to 10.93. However, he had a nervous wait after the siren while a score for American Jake Marshall came in. Marshall needed a 4.7 to take Cibilic's place in the next round and he had a long ride in the final minutes. It came back as a 4.37.
Merewether's Morgan Cibilic moved higher into calculations for championship tour qualification with a round-of-16 performance at the 10,000-point Ericeira Pro in Portugal.
Cibilic narrowly lost to West Australian Jacob Willcox on Friday night (AEST) but still collected 3700 points for his ninth-placed effort.
In just his second full season on the qualifying series, Cibilic was ranked 22nd with 10,570 points before the Ericeira Pro.
He climbed to a total of 13,850, from his five best performances of the year, and 16th with his run in Portugal. That is just 650 points outside the qualification line for the 2020 CT heading into the season-ending Hawaiian leg, which features two 10,000-point and two 3000-point contests.
On Friday night, Cibilic needed a 7.41 late to beat Willcox in big but slow swell and he put together a strong ride with a minute left on the clock.
The judges gave him a 6.6 and he was eliminated 11.83 to 11.03 in the first round of man-on-man heats.
The 19-year-old had earlier scraped into the last 16. He was second in his three-man round-four heat behind countryman Cooper Chapman 12.6 to 10.93.
However, he had a nervous wait after the siren while a score for American Jake Marshall came in.
Marshall needed a 4.7 to take Cibilic's place in the next round and he had a long ride in the final minutes. It came back as a 4.37.
