Hobgood wins gold; U.S. team wins silver at World Surfing Games

October 21st, 2008, 11:56 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Shawn Price

The U.S.A. Surf Team beat their own expectations and used strong surfing to a silver medal finish Sunday at the 2008 ISA World Surfing Games in Portugal.

It was the highest finish of a U.S. team in the games since 1996 and a giant shot in the arm for a program struggling to rebuild itself.

Australia won its third consecutive team gold by a wide point margin, but the U.S. team finished well ahead of bronze-winning Brazil and copper-winning France. The U.S. was led by Florida’s C.J. Hobgood, and San Diego County’s Lauren Sweeney and Taylor Jensen, who all won individual medals.

The 2001 world champ Hobgood outsurfed three Aussies, two of which are fellow World Championship Tour members, to win the gold in the men’s shortboard. Though he started the day with a scare, getting knocked into the repercharge final, he bounced back to beat Australia’s Heath Joske, 15.80-15.66.

Joske got off to early lead but Hobgood crept back in 10 minutes later. He took the lead for good moments later on a righthander and put it away with a 7.20. Hobgood went on defense and sat on Joske the remaining three minutes.

“I had to compete against three Aussies that I have a great respect for,” Hobgood said after. “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!”

Sweeney, a perpetually underrated surfer, finished fourth in her heat against Aussie teenage phenom Sally Fitzgibbons, who at 17, has already qualified for the world championship tour. Fitzgibbons also became the first surfer in history to win gold medals at ISA’s World Junior Surfing Championships and the world games in the same year.

Though Fitzgibbons waited 12 minutes to get her first ride, her pair of eight-point rides gave her lead the quickly after and the gold in the women’s shortboard.

“I feel really good about the result,” Sweeney said. She was a member of the 2004 junior team who made a priority of finishing college since then. But after graduating earlier this year was not at her competitive peak, all the more reason her performance was inspiring. “I paddled out far away by myself. The other three sat in the same spot by the rocks. I gambled and lost, Sally gambled and won. But I had fun and was going for broke.”

Jensen, who won the U.S. Open longboard title in July, continued his string of solid performances. Unfortunately, he came up against a juggernaut of South Africa’s Matthew Moir, who won his second consecutive gold medal and whose unbeaten heat streak stretches back to the Huntington Beach games in 2006. Moir is now planning to try for the record of three longboard golds in a row, held by Brazil’s Marcelo Freitas.

But Jensen was thrilled by the result. The competition was no cake walk.

“You look at the top four guys in the contest and we’re all in the top 10 in the ASP ratings,” Jensen said. “And we’re all good friends, but you realize you’re not just fighting for yourself, you’re fighting for your country. It definitely was a great experience.”

Success for the U.S. team can be credited slightly to the absence of the Hawaiian team at this year’s games. Nevertheless, the toughness of the women’s team of Sweeney and Demi Boelsterli in particular, and also the leadership of head coach Joey Buran, who scrambled to put the team together after the WJSC in May, were key factors.

2008 ISA WORLD SURFING GAMES

Final results

Team medal

Gold: Australia – 17,238 pts.

Silver: USA – 14,284 pts.

Bronze: Brazil – 12,610 pts.

Copper: France – 11,819 pts.

Open Men

Gold: C.J. Hobgood (USA)

Silver: Heath Joske (Aust.)

Bronze: Dayyan Neve (Aust.)

Copper: Kai Otton (Aust.)