South Africa slip into third spot
Source: www.isasurf.org
posted on 27th March 2004
Australia tightened its grip on the ISA World Surfing Games team trophy on the penultimate day of the 20th edition of the event being staged in Salinas, Ecuador, and will go into the final day with all but two of their 10 person squad still in contention for the five individual titles and the ISA Trophee tag team event.
After Kira Llewellyn, Andrew Lester and Sheridan Shields yesterday qualified for the grand finals of the women and men’s bodyboard events and women’s surfing, and Sasha Stocker for the repecharge final for men’s surfing, the record holding six time winners of the team event added four more team members to tomorrow’s final repecharge heats in men and women’s surfing, longboarding and men’s bodyboarding.
And they then went on to clinch a berth in the ISA Trophee final when the defeated Brazil by the narrowest of margins in their semi-final to grab second place behind defending champions New Zealand.
Yesterday’s nearest challengers and defending team champions South Africa were overtaken by Brazil when they suffered the disappointment of having all three of their contenders to join Sean Holmes and Jason Ribbink in Sunday’s final day’s action eliminated at their final hurdle today.
Despite having both their men’s bodyboarders eliminated, Brazil still have four contenders for the titles with Teco Padaratz and defending champ Neymara Carvalho already in the men’s surfing and women’s bodyboarding respectively while defending champ Marcelo Freitas in the longboard and Andrea Lopes in the women’s surfing are into the repecharge finals of their disciplines.
Peru, with Sofia Mulanovich in the women’s surfing grand final and Gabriel Villaran in the men’s surfing final repecharge, are still in fourth place, 700 points behind South Africa and 1500 ahead of fifth placed France, who have four in contention in men and women’s bodyboarding, women’s surfing and longboarding.
Tahiti are 900 points further back followed by Spain, Venezuela and Costa Rica, with the UK in 10th spot and hosts Ecuador in a creditable 11th place in the first time they contested the event with a full team.
In a rising swell that provided occasional two metre waves, the battle to qualify for the final day produced tight tactical contests and some outstanding surfing.
The round five longboard repecharge heat resulted in Josh Constable (Aus) and Pan American champ Steve Newton (USA) advancing at the expense of Francisco Posadas (Ecuador) and Daniel Gil (Argentina) to join Marcelo Freitas (Brz) and Patrick Laux (Tahiti) in Sunday’s final repecharge, with the top two there advancing to the grand final against Jason Ribbink and Antoine Delpero (France).
Round five of the women’s bodyboard repecharge saw Yolanda Blanco (Mexico) and Claire McGowan (UK) advance to a Sunday match up with Marina Taylor (Spain) and Heloise Bourroux (France) by defeating Moerava Anderson (Tah) and Yuka Nishimura (Japan). Neymara Carvalho (Brz) and Kira Llewellyn (Aus) are waiting in the grand final for the top two from the repecharge final.
Beau Day (Aus) and Yeray Martinez (Spain) advanced to the men’s bodyboard repecharge final by relegating Arnaldo Gonzalez (Venezuela) and Darren Halse (SAfr). They will have to overcome Andrew Lester (Aus) and Vaughn Harris (SAfr) in order to reach the grand final and the chance to challenge Alvaro Padron (Spain) and defending champion Nicolas Capdeville (France) for the title.
The women’s surfing repecharge round 7 heat was won by event high point scorer Jessi Miley Dyer (Aus) who advanced with Julia Christian (USA) to meet Andrea Lopes (Brz) and Emmanuelle Joly (Fra) for a place in the grand final against Sofia Mulanovich (Peru) and Sheridan Shields (Aus).
The premier men’s surfing discipline where the winner contributes 4 000 points to the team tally, saw fierce struggles that left Frankie Oberholzer (SAfr) and Javier Swayne on the sideline while Mark Richardson (Aus) and Hira Teriinatoofa (Tah) advanced to an encounter with Gabriel Villaran (Peru) and Sasha Stocker (Aus) with the top there taking on Sean Holmes (SAfr) and Teco Padaratz (Brz) for the honour of being the ISA world surfing champion for the next two years.
The ISA Trophee final will feature South Africa and Spain, who defeated France and hosts Ecuador in the first semi today, and defending champions New Zealand along with Australia, who relegated Brazil and Tahiti in the second semi.
The 2004 ISA World Surfing Games draws to a close tomorrow (Sunday) with the final day program starting at 8am with the repecharge finals in the five individual disciplines followed by the ISA Trophee at approximately 9.45am and then the grand finals of bodyboard women, bodyboard men, longboard, women’s surfing and men’s surfing.
The awards ceremony will be staged on the podium at Playa de la FAE at approximately 1 pm.
NB Further releases from various teams and images from the 2004 ISA WSG are available on
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