- WSL / Thurtell
- WSL / Thurtell

Kommetjie local Jake Elkington and Kayla Nogueira of uMhlanga head the rankings for the second annual BOS Cape Crown pres. by Billabong that will be run at Long Beach in Kommetjie on Saturday and Sunday.

The fourth of nine WSL Junior Qualifying Series (JQS) events in the Africa region event for 2017, the BOS Cape Crown comprises JQS1,000 events for Men and Women and has attracted the cream of the country's 18-and-under competitors who will competing for the prestigious titles and a total of R30,000 in prize money.

The rankings points earned at the event will count towards the crowning of the 2017 WSL Africa Junior champions and also the selection of the top four men and top two women to represent the region at the WSL Junior Championships in Australia in January 2018.

Elkington, who has reached the final of all three junior men's events this year (winning in Port Elizabeth and finishing third in East London and Durban), holds a slender 70 point rankings lead over reigning WSL Africa junior men's champion Adin Masencamp of the Stand, who clinched the event title in Durban last month.

They will be hard pressed to maintain their current standings on the leaderboard by East London event champ, Koby Oberholzer from Warner Beach and Elkington's younger brother Max Elkington, who has already reached two finals this year.

Joshe Faulkner of Jeffreys Bay, Luke Slijpen from Hout Bay, Salt Rock's Calvin Goor and Luke Malherbe from East London fill the balance of the spots in the top eight and will be going all-out to move in contention for spots in the WSL Africa squad for the World Junior champs with a good result on the weekend.

Nogueira has been the form surfer in this year's junior women's events, clinching two event victories and building up a solid rankings lead over Sophie Bell from Salt Rock, with Jeffreys Bay's Kirsty McGillivray and Tayla De Coning from East London filling the third and fourth spots.

However, Bell showed why she is the 2016 WSL Africa junior women's champ by completing the rare feat of winning both the junior and open women's events in East London in April. The pair are both from KwaZulu-Natal but Bell, 17, has significantly more experience of competing in the frigid Cape Town surf than her 13 year-old rival.

Organisers will meet at Kommetjie early on Saturday morning to decide when the contest will get underway. The champions in all events will be crowned at Long Beach shortly after the finals on Sunday afternoon.

Although there will be no live coverage for the event, results, images, news and more for the JQS events will be available at WorldSurfLeague.com and on the WSL App, with highlights on the WSL QS Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

The BOS Cape Crown is supported by Billabong, Sea Harvest, Surf Ears, Lifestyle Surf Shop, Greeff Properties / Village Homes, National Lotteries Commission, World Surf League and Surfing South Africa

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