Darren Halse progresses, while RSA maintain second position
Source: www.isasurf.org
posted on 25th March 2004
Sasha Stocker from Australia stayed on track for a historic second open men’s surfing title at the 20th ISA World Surfing Games in Salinas, Ecuador, today when he reached the qualifiers final in dropping one to 1.3 metre (3-4 foot) surf.
Stocker won his first title in 1994 at Barra Beach, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and has not put a foot wrong in this event, staying in the qualifying stream by placing first or second in the five heats he has contested to date. He was impressive again today, winning the opening heat of the day over Peruvians Gabriel Villaran and Javier Swayne to reach the last four of the qualifiers and now having two attempts at reaching the grand final.
In his next heat Stocker again comes up against Villaran, who he defeated today, Brazilian Flavio ‘Teco’ Padaratz (Brazil) and Sean Holmes (South Africa), who finished first and second in the other semi-final, with the top two from that encounter on Friday advancing directly into Sunday’s prestigious men’s open final.
In the double elimination format used at the biennial WSG, the pair placing third and fourth in the qualifiers final, who will have lost for the first time in the event, get another chance against the top two from the repecharge stream, with the first and second place finishers from that heat joining the two already in the grand final.
Round seven of the men’s repecharge stream resulted in Mark Richardson (Aus) and Hira Teriinatoofa (Tahiti) eliminating a game Mark Bannister (Aus), the 2002 runner-up, whose gallant attempt to reach the grand final from the first round of repecharge came to an end due to a broken surfboard halfway through the heat. The second heat was won South Africa’s Frankie Oberholzer, who along with David Reardon-Smith (Aus) ended the hopes of Loic Erran (France).
The inconsistent nature of the surf was highlighted in the third round of women’s qualifiers where yesterday’s hero, Jessi Miley-Dyer (Aus), who recorded a perfect 10 point ride and the highest heat total of the event, was today relegated to the repecharge rounds when she placed third behind world #7 Sofia Mulanovich (Peru) and experienced campaigner Emmanuelle Joly (France).
Andrea Lopes (Brazil) and Natasha Rodriguez (Venezuela) advanced from the first heat of the round with Tasha Mentasti (SAfr) and Marie Pierre Abgraal (France) dropping to the repecharge rounds, while Laura Pecoraro (Argentina) and Sheridan Shields (Aus) advanced from heat three, with Adelina Taylor (Spain) and Sacha Moller (SAfr) having to take the long path through the repecharge rounds.
In the third round of longboard repecharge Josh Constable (Aus) and Pan American champion Steve Newton (USA) kept their hopes alive by eliminating Rogelio Ramos while Francisco Posadas from the host nation had the beach crowd in raptures by winning the second heat from Daniel Gil (Argentina) with Lee Ryan (UK) sidelined.
The bodyboarders tried their skills in the long left breaking point at Play de la FAE for the first time today when all the action was staged in front of the main podium. The wave produces an exceptionally long ride with mixed flat and hollow sections that tested the repertoire of the riders.
Cedric Dufaure (France) was in sync with waves, scoring over 16 points from a possible 20 in both his heats and reaching the fifth round of repecharge, as did Darren Halse (SAfr), Yeray Martinez (Spain) and Arnaldo Gonzalez (Ven) while Emiliano Tabare, the 2002 runner-up and first ever ISA medal winner for Argentina was eliminated.
The women’s bodyboard repecharge rounds saw Claire McGowan (UK), Yolanda Blanc (Mexico), Yuka Nishimura (Japan) and Moerava Anderson (Tah) advance through two heats with the likes of Inge Pieters (SAfr) and Mihi Wells (NZ) eliminated.
Australia maintained a firm grip at the top of the provisional team standings after five days of competition despite losing their first team member today with defending ISA champions South Africa in a fairly comfortable second place having had two men and their women’s bodyboarder eliminated. Brazil has overtaken Peru for third place as they lost three men and one women surfer while the Peruvians have two men and both men’s bodyboarders out.
The leaders are followed by France in fifth place and then come Spain, Venezuela, Tahiti, Costa Rica and Ecuador with the host nation in a close four-way tussle for the final place in the top 10 with the UK, New Zealand and Argentina.
Friday’s program of events starts with the longboard qualifiers semi-finals, then the third repecharge round of women’s surfing and the longboard qualifiers final. The women’s surfing qualifier semis, repecharge round four and qualifier final are next up followed by qualifier semis for man and women’s bodyboard, a round of men’s repecharge and then the qualifier finals for both men and women bodyboarding.
The day ends with the qualifier final and the repecharge semis in the crucial men’s surfing division where the four man contingent in each team means that the eventual men’s world champ contributes a substantial 4 000 points to his team’s accumulated total.
NB Further releases from various teams and images from the 2004 ISA WSG are available on
www.surfersvillage.comFor further information:
Life's a Beach Communications
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