by Greg
2. November 2010 08:30
Australian Steph Gilmore, 22 has once again shown her true class as she won the Rip Curl Women’s Search in Puerto Rico and in doing so, she has taken down her fourth consecutive Women’s World Title.
Steph is a true champion and she is the first person to ever win 4 consecutive World Titles from their Rookie year on tour. She was also the 2nd youngest girl ever to win an ASP event in 2007 when at age 17 she received a Wild Card entry into the Roxy Gold Coast Pro, I was at the event and you could see right away that this young girl had the talent to win multiple ASP World Titles.
On the flip side of Steph’s great Rip Curl Search contest are our 2 South African ladies Rosanne Hodge and Nikita Robb. Nikita has had a very mediocre rookie year on tour and had little to no chance of re-qualifying at this late stage of the year and fell out the contest in round 2. Rosanne Hodge although having a bad year by her standards could still have qualified with 2 third place finishes but she was dished low scores by the judges in her round 3 encounter, losing to Australian Chelsea Hedges by 0.07 of a point. You have to feel for our Ladies as they have put up a hard fight this year but I know they will come fighting back harder next year and re-qualify.
In the Rip Curl Search men’s division, the World title race is still being kept alive by a thread with World Number 1 Kelly Slater holding off World Number 2 South African Jordy Smith. It is almost certain that Kelly will win his 10th World Title but Jordy is not giving it to him lying down, Jords is the only surfer still with a chance at the title race and is putting up a strong fight! Travis Logie went down to Bobby Martinez in round 2 making Travis’s chance of qualifying through the World Title Tour very tough in the last event, the Billabong Pro Pipeline, however Travis is lying 33rd on the One World Ratings so he still has a chance to qualify through those ratings.
The South African surfing team has returned home from Peru with the Bronze medal for an overall 3rd place finish. Not bad going as there where over 30 countries’ competing. The team was a strong unit with superb behaviour, dedication and great sportsmanship but I feel we where let down by the judges in this event and it cost the team the Gold Medal. All round the teams where complaining about the judges as it was very apparent that there was a serious problem, lets hope it can be sorted out and the team can get there deserved gold medal next year! Peru claimed the Title in their home country for the first time ever with Australia finishing runner-up.
Greg Emslie
Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), 22, moments after claiming her history-making, fourth, consecutive ASP Women’s World Title.
Credit:© ASP / CESTARI