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Oz Titles - 2007
SOUL Australian Longboard Titles - Harley Ingleby And Chelsea Williams Crowned Open Champions For 2007
Saturday, 27 October 2007
(reproduced from Surfing Australia's coverage of the event)
Fantastic
waves and huge scores for the final day of the SOUL Australian
Longboard Titles held at North Haven Beach near Port Macquarie saw
Harley Ingelby (Coff’s Harbour) and Chelsea Williams (Tweed Heads) take
the Open Men’s and Women’s titles for 2007.
It was Ingelby’s second SOUL Australian Open Longboard Title following
his win in 2005 and Williams’ 3rd win following victories in 2004 and
2005.
Ingelby survived a very close final against 3 time Australian and
defending Open champion Josh Constable (Noosa). At the half way point
of the final Ingelby looked safely clear having posted two strong rides
but Constable brought the final to life with an amazing 9 point ride to
suddenly overtake Ingelby in first place.
“I knew Constable would throw out a challenge at some stage but I
wasn’t expecting him to get a 9 point ride and really apply the
pressure – I remained calm, stuck to my plan which was to simply
improve my score and fortunately I scored that 8.5 ride late in the
final and won – It feels great because it was such a good final with
high scores and excellent waves.”
Constable was disappointed having scored the highest wave of the final
but not being able to win –“ I needed a better 2nd scoring ride and
just couldn’t find a suitable wave in the end – I only needed a 7.25 to
win and in these waves that’s not hard to get but time was my enemy out
there and I simply couldn’t get the wave – Full credit to Harley
though, he’s a great surfer and deserves the title.”
Queensland surfers Grant Thomas and Jackson Close finished 3rd and 4th
in the final but had little impact with Ingelby and Constable always
well ahead.
Chelsea Williams had a vastly different final. She absolutely dominated
and was a class above her rivals today to take a most impressive win.
Two excellent wave scores left all her opponents chasing a combination
of scores to try and catch her but such was Williams class and style
that a challenger was not forthcoming. Popular local surfer Cath Perry
did well to finish 2nd ahead of WA surfer Georgia Young with Qld’s
Monique Keane in fourth place.
“It’s great to win a third Australian Title and I’m really looking
forward to all the international events in the coming 12 months. I feel
I’m surfing better than ever and I’m confident of winning every time I
compete.”
The Junior Men’s division provided the biggest surprise of the event.
Bryce Young (Angourie/NSW) had dominated throughout the event and in
his semi final earlier today put on an amazing performance and posted
the events highest scoring ride of a 9.5. He went into the final a red
hot favourite but unfortunately he seemed to have peaked in his semi
and struggled to find the right connecting waves in his final placing
3rd behind classy Sydney surfer Dan McComb (Harbord) who won
convincingly with Victori’a Adam Lynch (Geelong) coming 2nd.
Junior Girls saw Sunshine Coast Caloundra surfer Monique Keane take a
deserved win. It was Keane’s first SOUL Australian Longboard Titles and
she did well to also make the Open Women’s final where she placed
fourth.
All the senior divisional winners were decided and across all divisions
the surfing standard was exceptional and high scores were essential to
take a title today. Special mention must go to Central Coast NSW surfer
Danny Bond (Shelley Beach) who won the over 60 Men’s and he now has an
incredible 11 Australian Longboard Titles!
South Australia’s Jason Russell broke the NSW/Qld domination by taking
a very popular and first Longboard title in 15 ears for the “crows”
with his win in the over 40’s division.
The Teams event was again surfed with passion and Queensland came home
the strongest and tactically the smartest to take the Teams Title for
2007 with Victoria in 2nd place, NSW 3rd, WA 4th and SA in 5th.
It was a perfect day to finish the event with ideal weather and waves
and Surfing NSW are very optimistic about making the event bigger and
even better in 2008 with Port Macquarie the planned destination again.
In the end the NSW Team took 6 titles, Qld 4, SA 1 and 1 went to wild card surfer Harley Ingelby (Coff’s Harbour).
Full Result spreadsheets across all divisions can be found at Surfing Australia's web site - take the link on the right.
The SOUL Australian Longboard Titles is proudly supported by NSW
Government, Tourism NSW, Port Macquarie Hastings Council, Greater Port
Macquarie Tourism, Panthers Port Macquarie, Surfing Australia,
Coastalwatch.com, Tooheys Extra Dry and Surfing NSW.
(This article was reproduced from Surfing Australia's coverage of the event)