6.47 PM Tuesday, March 8th, 2005/
Quiksilver Pro presented by Boost Mobile Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Foster’s Men’s World Championship Tour (WCT) Snapper Rocks, Gold Coast, Australia March 1st - 13th, 2005
Local Mick Fanning wins Quiksilver Pro presented by Boost Mobile!
Tuesday, March 08, 2005 (Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia): COMEBACK kid Mick Fanning (Aus) signalled he is back to his electrifying best with an emotion-charged victory in the Quiksilver Pro Presented by Boost Mobile at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast today.
Before an ecstatic 8,000-strong home crowd, the 23-year-old Gold Coast local hero defeated American rookie Chris Ward in the season-opening Foster’s Men’s World Championship Tour event to complete a remarkable return from injury.
Fanning, who finished 4th in the world in 2003, missed most of last season after tearing his hamstring from the bone in a horrific free surfing wipeout in Indonesia.
After months of frustration spent out of the water in painful rehabilitation, he returned to the WCT this year courtesy of an Association of Surfing Professionals injury wildcard which fellow surfers voted unanimously to award him.
And what a comeback it was - Fanning capping a sensational Quiksilver Pro surfing festival in stunning fashion with his debut victory at home.
In winning the event, he joined fellow ‘Coolangatta Kids’ Joel Parkinson (2002) and Dean Morrison (2003) to have his name inscribed on the prestigious championship trophy. Adding to the parochial crowd’s delight was Gold Coast teenage wildcard Stephanie Gilmore’s triumph in the women’s Roxy Pro Presented by Boost Mobile.
“It’s just a statement to the world of surfing that Mick’s back,’’ said a joyful Parkinson, who with fellow Aussie Nathan Hedge chaired a deliriously happy Fanning from the beach.
“It made it so much sweeter to come back off injury,’’ said a shaking Fanning as he skolled a celebratory can of Foster’s, the US$30,000 winner’s cheque in his other hand.
“Everything that I’d thought about over the whole six months when I was out of the water, it all worked - I’m just so wrapped, just so stoked.’’
While the mercurial Ward caught anything and everything in the 35-minute final, amassing five waves in the first half of the heat before his opponent had a score on the board, Fanning was content to sit and wait for the waves with higher scoring potential.
Ward caught 14 waves to Fanning’s six but the scores were a telling factor. Twelve of the American’s waves scored less than four points, while the Australian amassed two eight point-plus rides and two five-pointers.
