11 June 2007

Durban surfer Jordy Smith has rocketed to the top of the World Qualifying Series rankings following a fifth-place finish in the R700 000 Sri Lankan Airlines Pro at Pasta Point in the Maldives on Friday.

The 19-year-old star has amassed 10 063 points from his best seven results on the 2007 WQS, more than the surfer who finished in fifth place on the yearend WQS ratings in 2006, which virtually guarantees him a top 15 finish at the end of this year.

The top 15 from the WQS end of year ratings qualify for the elite Foster's Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour (WCT) the following year, which is contested by the world's top 45 ranked surfers, and determines the annual undisputed world surfing champion.

Big money winner
Smith has also earned US $32 355 (approximately R230 000) in prize-money in 2007, making him the fifth-highest money winner of all ASP members on both tours. With more than 10 events, with prize money of R900 000 or more remaining, he can look forward to substantially increasing that figure.

The phenomenally talented teenager has clinched two world titles in the last nine months – the open division of the ISA World Surfing Games in California and the Billabong ASP World Junior Championships in Australia - and was voted South Africa's "Surfer of the Year" for 2006, the first time the award had been bestowed.

He also received the coveted Vans Triple Crown "Rookie of the Year" award in Hawaii in December, where he defeated a number of world class surfers before finishing second behind fellow Billabong team rider Joel Parkinson at Sunset Beach.

Maiden WQS win
Smith ended 2006 ranked twenty-sixth in his rookie year on the WQS, guaranteeing him a top seeding slot for this year. In March, he won his maiden WQS event, the four-star Hot Tuna Pro in Australia.

On his way to fifth place in the Maldives last week, he defeated two of the last three ASP world junior champions, first eliminating event top seed Adriano de Souza (Brazil, 2003) and then Kekoa Bacalso (Hawaii, 2005), before being beaten by Hawaiian Dustin Barca in the quarter-finals.

East London's Greg Emslie and Durban's David Weare were the next highest placed South Africans in the Maldives, reaching the last 48 of the event and finishing equal twenty-fifth.

SouthAfrica.info reporter

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