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by Jessep » Mon Dec 13, 2004 8:45 pm
Day 7: Australian trio James Wood, Stephanie Gilmore and Matt Wilkinson claim World Surfing Titles.
Revamped USA team secure second on overall international rankings.
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 13 December 2004: - - Three Australians, James Wood (U/18 boys), Stephanie Gilmore (U/18 girls) and Matt Wilkinson (U/16 boys), have claimed a trifecta of world junior surfing crowns by winning their respective divisions in the world’s most prestigious junior surfing contest, the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships, held at Tahiti’s Papenoo Beach. More than 170 surfers representing 24 nations competed in the annual event that culminated today in solid four-foot waves following six days of non-stop surfing action.
Wood, a former U/16 Quiksilver ISA World Champion (2002), surfed a total of seven heats in the week long event to claim his second ISA world title for Australia, emerging victorious in today’s blue ribbon U/18 boys final ahead of the undisputed cream of world junior surfing; emerging USA star Jeremy Johnston, 2003 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championship runner-up William Cardoso (Brazil) and defending event champion Ben Dunn (Australia).
The 18 year-old natural footer, hailing from the world famous point break of Lennox Head on Australia’s East Coast, established an early lead in the 25 minute encounter by picking off a series of good scoring rides and executing clean, fast backhand maneuvers, building on his form of past days while all three of his opponents struggled to find any sense of rhythm in the peaky conditions.
Johnston, who re-qualified for the final via the repercharge after losing to Cardoso on day four, showed plenty of flair, punctuating his rides with innovative fins-free vertical re-entries but the American’s waves lacked length of ride. Cardoso, another clear-cut event standout, lacked the explosive form of his earlier rounds stumbling on three occasions and finding himself stuck behind the white water on his best waves while Dunn, the event favorite, waited an agonizing 15 minutes for his first scoring ride before also stumbling.
When the final hooter sounded, Wood thrust both fists into the air with joy and fell from his surfboard into the water as a deafening roar exploded from his Australian team mates and friends watching from shore. The final two-wave combined heat score for Wood of 12.87 was just less than two points ahead of Johnston on 11.34 and well clear of Cardoso and Dunn on 8.74 and 6.32 respectively.
“I can’t even explain how good it feels to win,” explained Wood afterwards, draped in a national Australian flag. “When I came to Tahiti my goal was just to survive to the final day and now this. It’s the best result I’ve ever had, I’m just so stoked.”
“Before I paddled out my plan was to get a good, quick wave under my belt and sit away from the other guys and it worked. No one really caught a wave for like 10 minutes, there wasn’t much going on, but surfing can be lucky like that. Sometimes luck goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t. That was a close one and today I got lucky.”
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