A valiant seventh place finish by Gisborne surfer Stella Smith has seen the New Zealand Team hold on to third place overall at the 2017 ISA World Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championship held in Denmark overnight (Thursday 7th September local time).
Two days of competition remain at the event with six Kiwis lining up across four finals in four disciplines as well as the team relay.
Smith, the youngest member of the New Zealand Team at 15, competed in the Women’s SUP Surf discipline. Despite the securing the team’s best result in the surfing discipline, Smith felt she could have achieved more.
“For me I didn’t reach my goal for this event and I would have really liked to have made the final but it just didn’t go my way today” commented Smith.
“My last heat was frustrating as I couldn’t get any good waves after having a good heat earlier and it was hard after watching the guys surf before us catch heaps of fun looking ones” she added.
Smith was joined by Kaikoura’s Lucy Te Moananui who finished 13th overall after missing progression the quarterfinals. Te Moananui fought hard in her heat battling the messy 1.0m waves at Vorupor Beach but was eventually eliminated by her opponents from Brazil and South Africa.
Earlier in the day, New Zealand’s last male competitor, Trevor Tunnington (Gold Coast based) failed to advance out of his second round match up. After good form in the first round of the event, Tunnington fell to the challenging conditions.
“Yeah this morning was pretty hard” said Tunnington.
“Looking back I should have taken a couple lefts because they seemed to be linking up a little better. I opted for the rights but was only able to get one turn maybe two in on each wave.”
“Either way I was pretty happy with myself overall with the three events I competed in. The team is really close. I’m looking forward to cheering them on over the next few days and getting a group together for the relays on the final day” added Tunnington.
Smith was also eager to cheer on her team and in particular her sister.
“I’m really excited to watch the races I think that New Zealand will go really well. I know that Jaz will go good and it will be really exciting to watch” she said.
Friday is scheduled to be a lay day for the New Zealand Team before the finals of the technical races for SUP and Prone take place on Saturday and then the relay and closing ceremony on Sunday (local time).
Please see below for results from Day 5 (Thursday 7th September local time) of the 2017 ISA World Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championships being held in Denmark from the 1st – 10th September.
Team Rankings
1 France, 14603
2 Australia, 14121
3 New Zealand, 13848
4 Hawaii, 13336
5 USA, 12535
6 Brazil, 11852
7 Italy, 11603
8 Denmark, 11470
9 Japan, 11028
10 South Africa, 9810
Men’s SUP Surf Round 2
Heat 6
Guillermo Carracedo (ESP), 9.46, 1, Felipe Hernandez (MEX), 9.34, 2, Carsten Kurmis (GER), 7.60, 3, Trevor Tunnington (NZL), 6.10, 4
Women’s SUP Surf Round 2
Heat 2
Stella Smith (NZL), 11.2, 1, Hannah Finlay-Jones (AUS), 5.34, 2, Iballa Ruano (ESP), 9.43, 3, Mariko Strickland Lum (HAW), 4.764, 4
Heat 4
Aline Adisaka (BRA), 9.23, 1, Tamsyn Foster (RSA), 8.5, 2, Lucy Te Moananui (NZL), 3, 3, Aixa Sanchez (ARG), 0.73, 4
Women’s SUP Surf Round 3
Heat 2
Justine Dupont (FRA), 11.7, 1, Emmy Merrill (USA), 9.4, 2, Stella Smith (NZL), 6.47, 3, Natalia De La Lama (ARG), 4.87, 4
Further Information
For further information on the New Zealand Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Team please contact Surfing New Zealand’s Ben Kennings on 021 2278732 or email benkennings@surfingnz.co.nz.
