SA's 1-2-3-4-5 in Perth World Cup
10 December 2007
Oscar Chalupsky had a hat-trick of victories controversially taken away from him in the Perth World Cup surfski race on Saturday, but he can still take pleasure from the fact he holds onto his number one spot in the Surfski.info World Series rankings.
Fellow South African Clint Pretorius was a shock winner of the Rottnest Island to Sorrento Bay race, but his victory came about only when Chalupsky was relegated to third position after crossing the line first.
After a close race, Pretorius finished 16 seconds behind Chalupsky. They were followed home by Darryl Bartho and pre-race favourite, Dawid Mocke, with Herman Chalupsky rounding out a South African clean-sweep in fifth.
Drama
However, there was drama as Oscar Chalupsky, aiming for a hat-trick of wins in the event, approached the beach.
The 44-year-old Durban businessman, using all his years of experience took a slightly different line to the finish and managed to eke out a narrow lead. As they headed toward the beach he thought the lead boat told him to go right of the final buoy.
Chalupsky followed what he thought was the race boat's orders and raced the final 500 metres to the finish at Sorrento Beach and, such was his lead, was able to walk up the beach to complete the victory.
Video
A video taken from the lead boat and used as evidence in the hearing after the race clearly showed the race official shouting to Chalupsky. The exact words spoken to him as the boats approached Sorrento Beach were: "Oscar, there's a boat on the buoy. It's to the right of the groyne."
With the noise from the boat, wind, and his own paddling, Chalupsky misheard the shout as an instruction from the race officials to go right of the buoy.
It was clear the error was a genuine misunderstanding, and Chalupsky, who was leading, was certain to win, and gained no race-changing advantage, was given a 30-second time penalty that relegated him to third overall.
The race was summed up by third-placed Bartho: "Oscar would have won if he'd gone around the buoy," he told Surfski.info soon after the finish.
Philosophical
Chalupsky was philosophical about the race and the decision.
"What can you do?" he said in an interview from Perth. "I know I won and I know on the day I was the best paddler.
"The wind was blowing. I was 20 metres away, with spray flying so it is hard to hear what is being said. The guy says 'go right' as I approach the buoy … of course I am going to think he is talking about the buoy and so I followed his instructions.
"Even when I first heard the video, I thought he said go right of the 'buoy'."
Despite his third place, Chalupsky retains top spot in the World Rankings. Going into the event he held a narrow lead over Lewis Laughlin, who ended 10th in Perth. His third position means Chalupsky increases his lead to 35 points, while Mocke, who has done one race less, moves into third spot, 80 points behind Chalupsky.
Dark horse
Pretorius was a dark horse who nobody gave much thought to as a potential winner before the race. He only recently returned to ski paddling after breaking his arm and went out hard in a pre-planned attempt to win the two hotspots worth $1 000 each.
"I just wound it off the starting blocks and took the first hotspot," Pretorius said after the race.
"Then I thought I'd just hang in there, but about three kilometres from the second hotspot, Daw (Mocke), Daryl and Oscar and me pushed on and I caught a couple of runs on the left to take the second hotspot."
Bartho was not surprised. "Clint flew off the start," he said. "I'm sharing a room with him and he said he was going to just go for the hotspots."
Tense battle
From the second hotspot it was a tense battle with
the paddlers using their wave-riding ability to try and get an edge over their rivals.
The experience of Chalupsky was the difference and his incredible ablity to use the tail wind and following waves in a downwind race came to the fore. He paddled a slightly different line to his rivals and was able to manufacture a narrow lead which should have given him victory…if only he had not misheard the instructions from the race boat.
"I was waiting for Clint to burn out, but he's such a talent in the runs," said Bartho.
"But towards the end of the race I realised, hey, he's going to win this thing! He was leading until close to the end, Oscar was off to the left somewhere then came across and moved slightly ahead."
Hat-trick prevented
Surprisingly Mocke, who was aiming for a hat-trick of his own following victories in Hong Kong and Dubai, was never able to get ahead of his Durban rivals.
"We went hammer and tongs," said the Cape Town paddler after the finish. "I took a line slightly too far north so I had the runs coming in from the side as I came back over the last stretch.
"Oscar and Clint were brilliant!"
Results
SAInfo Reporter
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