Photo / Sean Evans / ISA
Dune Kennings (Ngāti Maniapoto) and Kehu Butler (Ngāi Te Rangi) have finished outside the qualifying spots for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games in El Salvador.
Both surfers are however celebrating their New Zealand teammates Billy Stairmand (16th) and Saffi Vette (22nd) provisionally making the Olympic cut and are excited to have had the opportunity to compete amongst the world’s best in Central America.
“I’m happy to be here representing and I definitely gave it my all with the heats I had,” said Kennings who finished in 61st place at the competition which featured 297 surfers from 63 countries.
Kennings, 27, and Butler, 23, faced a gruelling series of repechage rounds in stifling weather conditions after they were knocked out of the main competition draw after superb opening starts to the games which are a primary qualifying event for the Paris Olympic Games.
Piha’s Kennings won his first up heat but then placed third in round two, relegating the New Zealand national champion to the repechage rounds.
He grabbed a morale-boosting victory in his first repechage heat, second in the next but finished last in his remaining outing, ending his time at the games.
“Overall I felt like there was more to give and I didn’t have the performances I would of liked,” Kennings told Surfing New Zealand.
“Three heats in this heat is exhausting, but I loved every second of it. I’ll take a lot from this event and be back stronger and better.”
Butler, an Oceania junior champion, put together a series of outstanding performances winning his opening heat of the games and scoring a second-place finish in round 2 that saw him advance to the third round.
But needing to finish in the top two spots to continue in the main draw, the Mount Maunganui surfer was “pipped” into third place and relegated to the repechage rounds.
He won his first repechage but fell short in his next.
Up against Brazil’s Joao Chianca, Francisco Bellorin of Venezuela and Colombia’s Giorgio Gomez, “Butler was in contention until the very end” keeping busy with a high wave count to find the best scoring potential, said Surfing New Zealand.
But Butler was unable to find the required 6.73 to advance, finishing third behind Chianca and Bellorin and bowing out of the competition in 37th place.