Australia wins third consecutive ISA World Surfing Games

Hobgood, Fitzgibbons, Lima, Sagardia and Moir are the new ISA World Champions

With a big display of friendship and Olympic spirit, the 22nd edition of the World Surfing Games was carried out. The best 233 surfers from 29 different countries gathered together from October 11-19 in Costa de Caparica’s waves, Portugal.

The event had exciting moments in every heat of the five different divisions: Open Men, Open Women, Bodyboard Men, Bodyboard Women and Longboard. The conditions varied from solid 5 feet to well shaped two foot waves.

Australian Supremacy
The Australian patriotism and high surfing level sidelined their rivals.

Patriotism and good surfing gave the Aussies their third consecutive ISA World Surfing Games Gold Medal in the Team Standings, the fourth out of the past six editions. In addition, the team has also won three straight titles of the last Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships.

Australia obtained the gold medal in Open Women thanks to Sally Fitzgibbons, the silver, bronze and copper medals in Open Men thanks to Heath Joske, Dayyan Neve and Kai Otton, respectively. They also obtained silver in Longboard for the talented Harley Ingleby and the copper medal in Bodyboard Women thanks to Lilly Pollard.

The Australians managed to have 60% of their team on the podium. They won the Golden Team medal with a resounding 3,000 points difference from United States (second).

Once Mark Lane, Surfing Australia CEO, knew his country became champion one more time, he said: “I think the key of this team is that we have fun all the time, and that’s one of our goals, to laugh the more we can. Besides this is an important aspect of Australian culture, we never give up, we keep going”.

“It’s a great feeling to win again. It’s really a hard week to watch and go through every heat. You’ve got to deal with disappointments. You feel everything and when you come out of this and win, it just feels great.”

The final team standings are as follows:
Gold: Australia – 17,238 pts.
Silver: USA – 14,284 pts.
Bronze: Brazil – 12,610 pts.
Copper: France – 11,819 pts.

Brazilian Marcus Lima shines in Bodyboard
In a tough heat that had as main favorites - the locals Manuel Centeno and Hugo Pinheiro (gold and silver medal winners in the 2006 Games) - surfing in their home turf, Brazilian Marcus Lima stole the show.

He surfed quickly to put some scores under his belt, posting a 6.20 and an 8.30. By mid heat he started to work his strategy on Centeno, who was second. This caused a hassle which resulted with an interference call: Centeno on Lima. Pinheiro and Lee also had interference calls.

With the other bodyboarders, Pinheiro and David Lee (ZAF) not catching many waves, the Brazilian was announced as the new ISA World Champion when the horn sounded.

“I just can’t believe it! I am not even the Brazilian Champion and now I’m a World Champion!” said the Brazilian while he was cheered by his entire team. “I am so happy. The Brazilian team was absolutely great. When they told me that I was coming here a year ago, they said to me that I had to win the gold. Now I have a clean conscience because I know I got what I came to do”.

Centeno ended in second, Pinheiro third and Lee fourth.

Puerto Ricans win their first ever Gold Medal
Natasha Sagardia from Puerto Rico entered the surfing history books, becoming the first ever Puerto Rican to win a Gold Medal in the ISA World Surfing Games. Sagardia led her heat from the beginning until the end. A combined score of 13.96 gave her the win.

Sagardia was received and carried in the arms of her teammates and cried all the way through the beach. “I can’t stop crying! I’m super excited. I don’t know if this is real! This is crazy, I was just thinking, please God let me get the right waves and surf like I know. This is a dream come true. I’ve been working so hard to be here, I can’t even believe it.” 

Bourroux (FRA) placed second, Pires (CRC) third and Pollard (AUS) fourth.

Sally Fitzgibbons enters the history books
At 17, Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) has made it into the history books by becoming Gold Medalist in both the ISA World Junior Surfing Championship and the ISA World Surfing Games in the same year. No one has ever achieved this before.

Sally started slow in her final heat against Marie Dejean (FRA), Camila Cassia (BRA) and Laureen Sweeney (USA). She waited 12 minutes for a good wave. When it came, she scored an 8.90 then an 8.20 soon afterwards to take the lead and become the ISA World Champion and gold medalist.

“I was lucky to get some waves. Conditions were really difficult and all the girls were surfing really well. This is an amazing contest with an amazing atmosphere. I am definitely the happiest woman on earth. I just couldn’t imagine a better year”, said the stoked Aussie after her final heat.
 
Dejean placed second, Cassia third and Sweeney fourth.

Moir becomes back to back gold medalist
Matthew Moir (ZAF) won for the second time in a row the Gold Medal in the Longboard division of the Games. He not only won the final of both events, he actually won every heat he entered at Huntington Beach 2006 and at Costa de Caparica in 2008. He´s now looking forward to match Marcelo Freitas (BRA) record as a three-time consecutive Longboard winner.

Moir posted an almost perfect 18.12 combined score (9.22 and 8.90) to leave Harley Ingleby (AUS) in a close second, Taylor Jensen (USA) in third and Phil Rajzman (BRA) in fourth.

“I’m so, so stoked. I never thought I would have the chance to win two years in a row. Marcelo Freitas won it three years in a row and I did it two times so I’m pretty happy for that. I had a great support from my teammates at the beach. That was amazing, I just can’t believe it,” said the South African.

Hobgood wins against three Aussies
Team USA surfer and ASP World Tour World Champion in 2001, CJ Hobgood had a great final day. It started with him falling to the repechage final, but it ended amazingly with a Gold medal around his neck. 

The Open Men’s final included three World Tour surfers but started with the great Aussie talent, Heath Joske, posting a solid 8.40 and taking the lead for the first ten minutes. But the US surfer maintained calm and, midway through the heat, he took the lead after riding a nice right and scoring an 8.60 that was backed up with a 7.20.

With three minutes to go and Joske needing a 7.41, CJ started using tactics and didn’t let the Aussie catch a wave. When the horn sounded, he was all smiles and said: “It feels so good right now. I had to compete against three Aussies that I have a great respect for. It was a really good final with me and Joske going back and forth.

And coming towards the end, I didn’t know if I should sit on him or not. But I knew that if he would’ve caught a wave and got the score, an opportunity that I might not have again would’ve been lost. It’s a great feeling. These opportunities don’t come back too often so to take advantage of it. It is amazing!”

After he was awarded the Gold Medal, CJ thanked International Surfing Association President, Fernando Aguerre “I would like to thank Fernando for his tireless job promoting surfing and for organizing the Games. This is a great and unique event.”

Dayyan Neve placed third and Kai Otton fourth.

Closing Ceremony
An emotional Closing Ceremony took place on the beach in front of a great crowd of locals and the Games’ participants from 29 nations. The finalists received their medals and anthems of the winning countries were sung.

ISA President Fernando Aguerre thanked the Authorities of the hosting city, Almada; the organizer, Natural Factor; the ISA Contest Officials and all the teams that travelled from all over the world to be part of the competition.

“This is a show of surfing but is, most importantly, a show of brotherhood between the nations of the world. In the last heat of today for the Open Mens division, we saw one US surfer and three Australians. Their surfing in that heat symbolized the World Surfing Games and the ISA spirit. It could’ve been very difficult for one guy surfing against three of the same nation, but they all surfed together with good sportsmanship,” Aguerre said.

The Ceremony was closed with ISA President welcoming the upcoming Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship 2009 that will be held in March in Ecuador and the Billabong ISA World Surfing Games 2009 to take place in August in Costa Rica.

World Champions
Gold: Australia – 17.238 pts.
Silver: USA – 14.284 pts.
Bronze: Brazil – 12.610 pts.
Copper: France – 11.819 pts.

Open Men
Gold: CJ Hobgood (USA)
Silver: Heath Joske (AUS)
Bronze: Dayyan Neve (AUS)
Copper: Kai Otton (AUS)

Open Women
Gold: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS)
Silver: Marie Dejean (FRA)
Bronze: Camila Cassia (BRA)
Copper: Lauren Sweeney (USA)

Bodyboard Men
Gold: Marcus Lima (BRA)
Silver: Manuel Centeno (POR)
Bronze: Hugo Pinheiro (POR)
Copper: David Lee (ZAF)

Bodyboard Women
Gold: Natasha Sagardia (PRI)
Silver: Heloise Bourroux (FRA)
Bronze: Rita Pires (POR)
Copper: Lilly Pollard (AUS)

Longboard
Gold: Matthew Moir (ZAF)
Silver: Harley Ingleby (AUS)
Bronze: Taylor Jensen (USA)
Copper: Phil Rajzman (BRA)

Aloha Cup
Gold: France
Silver: Portugal
Bronze: Costa Rica
Copper: South Africa

About International Surfing Association
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the World Governing Authority for surfing, bodyboarding and surfriding. It was originally founded as the International Surfing Federation in 1964 and has been running world championships since 1964 and the Junior World Championships since 1980. 

ISA membership includes the surfing National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of over 50 countries on six continents. Its headquarters are located in San Diego, California. It is presided by Fernando Aguerre, first elected in 1994 in Rio, and re-elected six times since.  The ISA's four Vice Presidents are Alan Atkins (Australia), Robin de Kock (South Africa), Maile Aguerre (Hawaii) and Mike Gerard (USA).

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