OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 2.00pm.
JEFFREY’S Bay will host the first R1-million surfing event in South Africa when the Billabong MSF Pro starts in the Eastern Cape town on June 29.
The event, sanctioned by the Association of Surfing Professionals, forms part of the 13-event World Championship Tour that crowns the annual men’s and women’s world surfing champions and has US$168 000 up for grabs.
The competition’s WCT rating gurantees a top-class field, with the best 44 men and top 15 women surfers matching wits on the legendary Supertubes, regarded as the best high performance point break on the planet.
Reigning world champions Mark Occhilupo and Layne Beachley, both Australians, current men’s ratings leader Sunny Garcia (Haw), the sensational Taj Burrow and last year’s runner-up Ross Williams (Haw) will take part in this year’s event.
Four wildcards have also been named to join the top 44 men, with defending champion Australia’s Joel Parkinson, Californian Keith Malloy, Australian junior Mick Fanning and South Africa’s Sean Holmes battling it out for the $15000 first-place.
Holmes will be joined by compatriots Greg Emslie from East London and Durbanite Paul Canning, while rookie WCT campaigner Heather Clark from Port Shepstone will be the first South African to compete in the women’s event.
Clark is ranked eighth in the world and has a good chance of claiming the win at Jeffrey’s Bay.