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\nLIVE on www.aspworldtour.com and www.billabongpro.com <\/p>\n
Billabong Pro Tahiti
\nStop No 3. of 10 on the 2007 Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour Teahupoo, Taiarapu, Tahiti May 4 -16, 2007<\/p>\n
\nLIVE on www.aspworldtour.com and www.billabongpro.com <\/p>\n
TEAHUPOO, Tahiti (Wednesday, May 16th, 2007) \u0096 Damien Hobgood (USA) has been crowned the 2007 Billabong Pro Tahiti Champion after beating Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour ratings leader Mick Fanning (AUS) in a last-minute victory in 5 to 7 foot (1.5 \u0096 2 metre) surf at Teahupoo.<\/p>\n
Hobgood bowed out of the 2005 Billabong Pro Tahiti Final halfway through after dislocating his shoulder \u0096 a circumstance which made his win today that much more meaningful.\u0093It\u0092s insane \u0096 I was stoked to have another chance at it,\u0094 Hobgood said. “I feel that things happen for a reason and I did my best out here in 2005 and came up short.\tI replayed that wave in my mind a hundred times going, \u0091I should have tried to stay in that barrel and not come out doggy-door,’ but I feel like I can put that out of my mind now.”<\/p>\n
Hobgood took off on a set wave needing an excellent scoring ride of 8.21 with one minute remaining. Fanning caught the wave behind but came up short in the exchange \u0096 Hobgood\u0092s 8.60 won him the heat.<\/p>\n
\u0093Even though there was only a minute left, I was still holding on and thinking I could do it,\u0094 Hobgood said. \u0093I was able to just barely pull it off but the heat was so close \u0096 Mick put on a great performance.\u0094<\/p>\n
Hobgood and Fanning met in a Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour final in Brazil last year that produced an outcome opposite to today\u0092s. Even though Fanning led for the majority of the heat, he was humble in his recognition of Hobgood\u0092s accomplishments today.<\/p>\n
\u0093There\u0092s nothing you can do,\u0094 Fanning said. \u0093You pray and hope that he falls, but in the same sense, you want to see someone get a good barrel. It\u0092s all good. I got him last year in Brazil so he got me back.\u0094 <\/p>\n
Fanning\u0092s 2nd place result at the Billabong Pro Tahiti has seen him pull away from the pack on the official ASP World Tour ratings. Having already featured in two out of three finals on this year\u0092s Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour, Fanning is well and truly in pursuit of his maiden world title. He finished 3rd in the world in 2005 and 2006.<\/p>\n
\u0093I always feel comfortable at home (on the Gold Coast) and in Bells,\u0094 Fanning said. \u0093I never really had a good result here at Teahupoo so I\u0092m stoked to get one and put it towards the World Title. This year, I\u0092ve had a few results at the start of the year \u0096 in the past I\u0092ve always seemed to do well the second half of the year. \u0094<\/p>\n
Fanning peaked in his semifinal against rookie Kai Otton (AUS), earning the only perfect 10.00 wave score of the event. Otton posted the second highest wave score of the event (a 9.90) in his Quarterfinal against Cory Lopez (USA), but lost to Fanning after making a critical priority mistake by giving the ratings leader the wave of the day.<\/p>\n
\u0093Mick scored that 10.00 under my priority, but that\u0092s what happens, guys get scores underneath priority,\u0094 Otton said. \u0093I just thought I was a little deep and it didn\u0092t look that good but he was in the perfect spot, got really deep and got the 10.00.\u0094<\/p>\n
Otton has moved to 10th on the Foster\u0092s ASP Ratings with this result; right behind French rookie Jeremy Flores who now sits 9th in the world.<\/p>\n
\u0093It\u0092s unbelievable,\u0094 Otton said. \u0093I\u0092m having a dream start for a rookie. If I can keep on a roll maybe I can avoid surfing the \u0091QS.\u0094<\/p>\n
Joel Parkison (AUS) has moved to fourth on the world ratings after his 3rd place finish today. Parkinson lost to Hobgood in Semifinal 1.<\/p>\n
\u0093The set came through and it had this big lump and it came to a peak and went straight to Damien and he got a 9.0 on it,\u0094 Parkinson said. \u0093I was 10 feet too deep and sometimes that\u0092s all it takes. I knew I needed to be patient but it never really happened for me after that. I\u0092m happy with the result though, a 3rd is great.\u0094<\/p>\n
The next stop on the Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour will be event No. 4, the Rip Curl Pro Chile, from June 20 to July 1, 2007.<\/p>\n
Visit the media center on www.aspworldtour.com for transcribed athlete interviews, audio downloads, hi-resolution photographs and heat by heat updates for all the Billabong Pro Tahiti action thus far.<\/p>\n
BILLABONG PRO TAHITI FINAL RESULTS
\nFINAL:\tDamien Hobgood (USA) 16.60 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.20<\/p>\n
BILLABONG PRO TAHITI SEMIFINAL RESULTS
\nSF 1: Damien Hobgood (USA) 18.17 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 12.67
\nSF2: Mick Fanning (AUS) 18.87 def. Kai Otton (USA) 15.33<\/p>\n
BILLABONG PRO TAHITI QUARTERFINAL RESULTS QF 1: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 17.53 def. Andy Irons (HAW) 12.00 QF 2: Damien Hobgood (USA) 17.17 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 14.23 QF 3: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.73 def. Luke Stedman (AUS) 14.33 QF 4: Kai Otton (AUS ) def. Cory Lopez (USA) <\/p>\n
Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour Ratings after Stop No. 3 of 10, the Billabong Pro Tahiti
\n1.\tMick Fanning 3108 points
\n2.\tTaj Burrow 2676 points
\n3.\tDamien Hogood 2342 points
\n4.\tJoel Parkinson 2340 points
\n5.\tBede Durbidge 2232 points
\n6.\tKelly Slater 2208 points
\n7.\tAndy Irons 1989 points
\n8.\tMichael Campbell 1932 points
\n9.\tJeremy Flores 1742 points
\n10.\tKai Otton 1701 points<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Billabong Pro Tahiti Stop No 3. of 10 on the 2007 Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour Teahupoo, Taiarapu, Tahiti May 4 -16, 2007 LIVE on www.aspworldtour.com and www.billabongpro.com TEAHUPOO, Tahiti (Wednesday, May 16th, 2007) \u0096 Damien Hobgood (USA) has been crowned the 2007 Billabong Pro Tahiti Champion after beating Foster\u0092s ASP World Tour ratings leader Mick … Continue reading “DAMIEN HOBGOOD TAKES TOP HONORS AT BILLABONG PRO TAHITI”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-13585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asp-surfing-news","tag-surfing-news-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}