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Rip Curl Malibu Pro (October 2 - 10)
Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) www.aspworldtour.com 2004 Women's World Championship Tour (WCT)
US Teenager Narrowly Wins Wildcard Berth to Compete in Rip Curl Malibu Pro WCT
Friday, October 1, 2004 (Malibu, California, USA)
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Karina Petroni (USA) won the Rip Curl Wetskins trials at Leo Carrillo Beach, California. Petroni earned a wildcard into the main event where she will compete against the top 17 women in the world.
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American teenager Karina Petroni, one of the surfing world's outstanding young talents, today narrowly overcame a top-class 16-woman field to win the lone wildcard berth into the first Rip Curl Pro World Championship Tour (WCT) competition at California's legendary Malibu Beach, due to begin tomorrow.
In clean but inconsistent two to three foot (one metre) waves at Leo Carillo Beach, north of Malibu, Florida's Petroni beat Californian Julia Christian and Hawaiian teenager Leilani Gryde to earn her first opportunity to surf against the world's top 17 female professionals.
The Rip Curl Malibu Pro is the first stand-alone women's professional world championship surfing competition on the USA mainland, and is the fifth of seven Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour (WCT) competitions in 2004, with each surfer's best six results to determine the final 2004 rankings.
Petroni, a 16-year-old natural foot (left foot forward) surfer, showed plenty of her prodigious talent and style to claim victory in today's 30-minute Trials decider, with less than one point separating the three finalists at the final hooter after a see-sawing tussle that had seen each of the trio hold the top spot.
The Floridian scored a total of 11.4 points (out of a possible 20) for her best two rides, with 22-year-old natural foot Christian posting 11.15 points and 17-year-old goody-foot Gryde 10.8 points.
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Pictured Left to right (front-back): Bethany Hamilton, Rochelle Ballard, Layne Beachley, Gidget, Mark Ruffalo, Jorja Fox, Jacqueline Silva, Simon Baker, Dominic Purcell, Chris Pontius.
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Gryde and Christian had last minute chances to win after Petroni snatched the lead in the final five minutes, but each of the Hawaiian and Californian's final waves just failed to provide enough open face for high scoring manoeuvres.
The Rip Curl Wetskin Trials featured 15 of America's best young surfers and Australia's reigning world junior champion Jessi Miley-Dyer clashing in a round robin series of 12 four-women heats, with Petroni, Christian and Gryde all winning each of their three preliminary heats to cement their places in the final. 18-year-old Miley-Dyer finished equal fourth overall in the Trials, but was far from disgraced and she looks set to join the world's top 20 women within the next year.
Elated at winning her first World Championship Tournament berth, Petroni now faces a daunting first round challenge in the US$62,500 Rip Curl Malibu Pro, meeting current world number one, 21-year-old Peruvian Sofia Mulanovich and 29-year-old Australian Melanie Redman-Carr, currently ranked 10th.
"I'm so stoked, I can't believe it," an excited and happy Petroni said as she emerged from the water. She continued "I just want to thank Rip Curl so much for putting on this event and letting me compete in it. I have surfed against Melanie, but not Sofia, and I'm really looking forward to the weekend now."
Contrasting Petroni's happiness was Julia Christian's severe disappointment at just falling short of reaching the main event. "It was just so close and I seem to have had a whole year with results like this," the Rip Curl team rider and 2003 member of the world's top 20 said. Christian is currently ranked 26th on the ASP World Qualifying Series and remains a chance to qualify for the 2005 WCT.
Meanwhile, this historic Malibu competition could well determine the fate of Australian Layne Beachley's bid for a record-setting seventh consecutive world championship.
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Former WCT campaigner Julia Christian (USA) finished runner up in the Rip Curl Wetskins Trials.
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Beachley, the 32-year-old who is already the most successful pro surfer of all-time male or female, is currently fourth on this year's world ratings after her least successful campaign in more than a decade. She must reach the final of the Rip Curl Malibu Pro and hope her rivals have early round losses to keep alive hopes of a seventh successive world title.
Mulanovich, heralded as a future world title contender since her early teens, is also on the verge of creating her own piece of history. If the diminutive South American wins at Malibu, she will become the first female surfer to win four consecutive contests in 26 years of women's pro surfing.
Hawaiian 33-year-old Rochelle Ballard and Brazilian 25-year-old Jacqueline Silva, currently ranked second and third respectively, are theoretically the strongest challengers to Beachley and Mulanovich at Malibu. For either Ballard or Silva to remain in contention for a maiden world title, each must place higher than the other, as well as finishing ahead of Beachley and Mulanovich.
Surf conditions for the weekend are forecast to remain similar to today, with the Rip Curl Malibu Pro expected to be completed on Sunday.
An entertaining highlight of this weekend's action should be the Celebrity Surfbout, a fun team surfing competition pitting some of Hollywood's leading actors against a lineup of high-profile musicians. Among those already confirmed to compete in the Celebrity Surfbout are:
- American Jorja Fox, one of the stars of the highly popular TV series CSI;
- Australian Simon Baker, star of the recent hit TV series The Guardian and the soon to be released movie The Ring 2;
- American self-confessed "idiot" Chris Pontius, best known for his crazy antics on MTV's Jackass and Wild Boyz programs;
- Australian Dominic Purcell, a rising Hollywood star with a lead role in the soon to be released movie Blade Trinity;
- American Mark Ruffalo, star of current hit movie 13 Going On 30.
For more information, please contact in the USA:
Adam Sharp, phone 1-760-917-9117, email asharp@ripcurl.com
Gary Dunne, phone 1-760-481-8312, email gdunne@ripcurl.com.au
Jesse Faen (ASP International Media Manager),
Email: jesse@aspworldtour.com
Mobile: +61 (0) 407 189 289
ASP International Office (Aus): +61 (0) 7 5599 1550 www.aspworldtour.com
ASP Digital Image Enquiries:
Karen Wilson, email karenwilson@aspworldtour.com
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