| Jeff Hubbard or Pierre-Louis Costes? |
| Tuesday, 13 December 2011 11:39 |
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Jeff Hubbard or Pierre-Louis Costes? In the next hours, the 2011 Fronton Pro will decide who will be the 2011 IBA World Tour bodyboarding champion. Australian Ryan Hardy’s world title plans went horribly astray in his round four heat. He failed to land a routine invert on his first wave and lost a fin, for the first time in competition this year, on his second. He soldiered on, in the solid six foot and windy conditions, catching one of his scoring waves with only one fin, until his board caddy was able to give him a spare as the heat reached the half way mark. Hardy looked as though he was going to pull off the comeback of the contest as he pulled into a big righthander but it pinched at the end and did not let him out. The heat ended with Hardy needing another scoring wave. His good friend and countryman, Mitch Rawlins, won the heat and ended his dream of becoming this year’s world champion. “I feel totally deflated, I feel like my life has basically just ended”, said Hardy. International wildcard, Jason Finlay from Australia, thought his competition was over as he heard his opponent and world title contender, Hawaiian Jeff Hubbard’s, score announced in the final minute of their heat. But with ten seconds to go, Finlay caught a wave, popped an air reverse and caused the first upset of the morning. He won the heat and ended the Hawaiian’s world title campaign. His girlfriend kissed him in the competitor’s area after he beat local wildcard, Elliot Morales, in one of the closest heats of the day. Pierre-Louis Costes, is the only world title contender left in the contest but still needs to win his next heat in the quarterfinals, if he is to become the first French world champion and stop Hawaiian Jeff Hubbard from winning his third world title. |
