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SA World Surfing Games
Costa de Caparica, Portugal
October 11-19, 2008

Moir takes second gold medal; Lee and Tag Team get copper at ISA World Surfing Games

Matthew Moir was the toast of Team South Africa when he successfully defended his ISA World Longboard title on the final day of the 2008 ISA World Surfing Games at Costa de Caparica in Portugal on Sunday.

The Capetonian was joined on the podium by fellow South African Dave Lee (Uvongo) who earned the copper medal for fourth place in the Men’s Bodyboarding and the SA tag team who also captured the copper medal in the Aloha Cup.

Australia emerged as the champion nation at the 22nd edition of the “Olympics of Surfing”, earning the accolade for the third consecutive time. CJ Hobgood (USA) took the men’s surfing title, Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) triumphed in the women’s surfing, Marcus Lima (BRA) in the men’s bodyboarding, Natasha Sagardia (PRI) earned a first gold medal for Puerto Rico in women’s bodyboarding and France won the Aloha Cup tag team event.

Moir won each of the five heats he contested en route to his second gold medal, as he did in California in 2006, and is now keen to match the three consecutive longboard titles recorded by Marcelo Freitas (BRA).

"I'm so, so stoked. I never thought I would have the chance to win two events in a row,” Moir said from the victory dais. “Marcelo Freitas won it three times in a row and I’ve done it twice, so I'm pretty happy for that. I had great support from my teammates on the beach. That was amazing, I just can't believe it."

Moir fought out a high scoring duel with Australian champion Harley Ingleby in the final, mastering the tricky half to one metre waves to rack up five rides over 7.5 points. His best two rides of 9.22 and 8.90 gave the champion a heat total of 18.12 that left US Open champion Taylor Jensen (USA) and reigning ASP World Champion Phil Rajzman (BRA) needing a combination of two scores in third and fourth places respectively.

Only Ingleby, with the heat high score of 9.74 on his final ride, was within one score of overtaking Moir when the siren sounded to end the heat.

Lee dropped into the grueling man’s bodyboard repecharge rounds when he placed third behind teammate Sacha Specker (Camps Bay) and 2006 champ Manuel Centeno (POR) in Round 4 of the winner’s stream. He then battled his way through three more rounds to reach the Grand Final where Lima emerged victorious after Lee, Centeno and 2006 runner-up Hugo Pinheiro (POR) were all penalised with interference calls in the hotly contested encounter.

Specker finished 5th overall after a great run in the event where he advanced straight to the winner’s stream final before being relegated to the repecharge final. There he placed third behind Lee and Lima to just miss out on a place in the Grand Final and a medal.

The South Africa tag team finished second behind France and ahead of Australia and the UK to qualify for the final of the Aloha Cup event, a form of relay surfing contested by the teams finishing in the top eight at the previous ISA World Surfing Games. However, the South Africans struggled in the final and finished well of the pace in fourth place behind France, who recorded the narrowest of victories over host nation Portugal, with surprise package Costa Rica in third.

Overall Team South Africa slipped to seventh place amongst the 29 national teams attending the event. Australia, who had three team members in the Grand Final of the men’s surfing, the highest counting division, finished nearly 3 000 points ahead of second placed USA.

Brazil took third place and France recorded their best ever result by snatching the copper medal for fourth just one point in front of Costa Rica with Portugal in sixth.

World Champion Nation
Gold: Australia - 17.238 pts.
Silver: USA - 14.284 pts.
Bronze: Brazil - 12.610 pts.
Copper: France - 11.819 pts.
South Africa – 7th – 11.237 pts.

Open Men
Gold: CJ Hobgood (USA)
Silver: Heath Joske (AUS)
Bronze: Dayyan Neve (AUS)
Copper: Kai Otton (AUS)
South Africans:
Klee Strachan – 13th
Matthew Kruger – 21st
Ryan Payne – 29th
Devyn Mattheys – 61st

Open Women
Gold: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS)
Silver: Marie Dejean (FRA)
Bronze: Camila Cassia (BRA)
Copper: Lauren Sweeney (USA)
South Africans:
Tarryn Chudleigh – 8th
Chantelle Rautenbach – 16th

Bodyboard Men
Gold: Marcus Lima (BRA)
Silver: Manuel Centeno (POR)
Bronze: Hugo Pinheiro (POR)
Copper: David Lee (ZAF)
South Africa:
Sacha Specker – 5th

Bodyboard Women
Gold: Natasha Sagardia (PRI)
Silver: Heloise Bourroux (FRA)
Bronze: Rita Pires (POR)
Copper: Lilly Pollard (AUS)
South Africa:
Pamela Bowren – 11th

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

The South African team's attendance at the ISA World Surfing Games is supported by funding from the National Lottery Board.

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