Rio Surf Pro on hold with big swell expected midweek
Competition in the World Surf League's Rio Pro has been put on hold until at least Wednesday with a big swell in the forecast.
After one day of competition, surfers now have two days off with waves of up to three metres expected to arrive at Brazil's Praia de Itauna break midweek.
"The surf has dropped quite considerably since yesterday, it's only two to three feet and with very slow sets," said WSL spokesman Renato Hickel.
"Some good ones when they do come, but not consistent enough to put an important round in the water.
"We know we have a big swell on the way, expecting six to 10 foot waves on Wednesday and that's when we'll have our next call."
The women's draw is up to the quarter-final stage, with Molly Picklum and Tyler Wright still flying the Australian flag.
World No.3 Picklum, who can take over the rankings lead with another heat win, next faces Arena Rodriguez, who is competing in her first Championship Tour event.
The 19-year-old from Peru produced the biggest shock result of the event by eliminating current world No.1 Gabriela Bryan.
Picklum is the only surfer in the world's top five to advance to the quarter-finals.
When competition resumes two-time world champion Wright will take on local hope Luana Silva for a place in the semi-finals.
Australia's two leading male surfers Jack Robinson and Ethan Ewing must contest the elimination round.
Robinson will take on Indonesian star Rio Waida while Ewing has drawn exciting young Frenchman Marco Mignot.
With two more competitions before the Finals-bound top five head to Cloudbreak in Fiji to decide the world champion, Ewing is ranked six and Robinson seven.
Sydney rookie Joel Vaughan, competing on his first year on tour, is already safely through to the round of 16 after convincingly winning his heat against Japan's third-ranked Kanoa Igarashi and Brazilan Alejo Muniz.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
West Australian
2 hours ago
- West Australian
JACKSON BARRETT: Australia's batting musical chairs set to end after West Indies Test series
Five months out from the first Test of the Ashes, there are just two players with completely unequivocal claims to their spot in Australia's batting order. It is Australia's great game of musical chairs. Steve Smith is one of those men. His role is the No.4 position, which — barring injury — he is certain to take up when the series opens in Perth at the end of November. Travis Head has his name in texter at No.5 for the Ashes. But Smith's gruesome finger injury and the selectors' eagerness for Head to open the batting on spin-friendly wickets could mean neither of them bat in those spots when Australia begins a three-match series against the West Indies on Wednesday night. On Tuesday, Smith's understudy Josh Inglis has revealed he doesn't know where he will bat when this series begins in Barbados. Marnus Labuschagne has been dropped — at least for the first Test — but selectors will be desperate for him to find form in time for the Ashes and beyond, where he has a key role in bridging the gap between this generation and the next. Usman Khawaja will open the batting with Sam Konstas against the West Indies, as selectors revealed in a rare move almost a week out from the first ball. The veteran opener has serious flaws facing genuinely quick bowling. He gets caught on the hop, he loses his balance, his feet come off the ground. He was superb in Sri Lanka on wickets that suit him and he is likely to be again in the Caribbean, but there have to be concerns over his ability to perform on quick decks on home soil. Konstas and Inglis will have an opportunity to make a case for Ashes selection, but it will have to be irresistible. Then there is Cam Green. Australian cricket's biggest investment this decade. He batted at No.3 and looked all at sea against the new ball and Kagiso Rabada. Green is a nervous starter as it is and as Australia has learnt with Labuschagne, the top order is no place for anxious prods. Selectors will be eager to see him succeed there as it would lock in a significant piece of their Test team puzzle going forward, but where Green actually bats in the Ashes will come down to both his own form and that of Beau Webster. The towering Tasmanian is the player in this team with the most to play for. He needs to prove his bowling will offer a genuine threat to England's middle-order, greater than what Green can provide with the ball when he ramps up his loads towards the start of the summer. To their credit, Australian selectors have found talented options in Konstas, Inglis and Webster, but there's not an awful lot in the queue beyond them. Marcus Harris has been dominating the second division of county cricket for Lancashire but has batted at four. Kurtis Patterson was the hottest batter in the Sheffield Shield last summer, but he is 32. Nathan McSweeney deserves another chance after he was thrown to the wolves at the top of the order against India last summer and fellow shield winner Henry Hunt has always loomed large. Jake Weatherald has landed an Australia A gig, but he is 30. In fact, the top three run-scorers from the last shield season was rounded out by 33-year-old Hilton Cartwright and 32-year-old Jake Lehmann. It leaves Konstas, Khawaja, Green, Labuschagne, Inglis and Webster all running around four chairs. Two of them are opening spots, one is the No.3 role and the other is at six. But the music will stop at the end of this West Indies series and two of them will be left out. Don't discount Labuschagne's ability to sneak in and find a chair for the Ashes.
West Australian
4 hours ago
- West Australian
Minjee Lee Australia's highest-ranked golfer again after PGA Championship win
Minjee Lee is Australia's highest-ranked golfer again on the back of her PGA Championship win, jumping to world No.6 as it became clear she's unlikely to play a tournament in Australia in 2025. Negotiations for the next staging of the women's Australian Open are ongoing after officials abandoned the dual-gender format that has been played for the past three years, with both tournaments returning to stand-alone events. World No.2 Rory McIlroy is locked in for a return to the men's event being played at Royal Melbourne in December, but the women's tournament is set to be played early in 2026, a return to a timeslot more favourable to attract the world's best players. The last stand-alone women's Australian Open was co-sanctioned with the LPGA Tour, played in Adelaide in February 2020, and attracted an elite field including world No.1 Nelly Korda, who won the event in 2019. Lee reached a career-high ranking of No.2 in 2022, and had been a constant in the world's top 10 until midway through 2024 as she endured a 19-month winless drought. The 29-year-old went into the PGA Championship ranked 24, having dropped out of the world's top 20 for the first time since 2015. But her return to the winner's circle in Texas delivered the rankings bump, lifting her over great friend Hannah Green, who fell out of the top 10 to No.11 and lost her place as Australia's highest-ranked player, male or female. Jason Day, who finished fourth at the $30m Travellers Championship, is the only Australian male in the world's top 30, ranked 28. In the wake of her win, Lee revealed how hard her coach, Richie Smith, had to work to get her to make the drastic switch to the long putter, a move that put her back on a path towards the No.1 ranking. 'I think he mentioned it to me like twice and I was like mucking around with it, so I would say it was a good change,' she said. 'I think just for me, it was taking the hands out of the putter. Just using my hands too much. So I was like manipulating the putter to the break. For me it was just using more of my shoulders to hit the point where I thought it was going to break and not making it break. 'I feel like I had a lot of doubt the past few years … I guess with my long game but more with my putting. 'I think the more I heard media and other people saying things about my putting, I think it got to me more and more over time. 'I guess I just had a lot of thoughts and just I was overthinking probably about just the conventional way of putting … and using the broomstick has really been helping me.' Lee now has more majors than Greg Norman, who only won two, but is yet to reach the No.1 ranking the Great White Shark held for a mammoth 331 weeks. Adam Scott and Day have also been world No.1, but there has never been an Australian female No.1, not even seven-time major champ Karrie Webb, with the women's rankings only introduced in 2006. But Lee declared she had greater ambitions than getting to world No.1. 'I really wanted to be in the Hall of Fame. That's why I started golf. That's why I wanted to be on the LPGA Tour, to, you know, win a bunch of tournaments and try to get into it,' she said. 'I think I would really like to get there. We'll see how we go after this week.'
Sky News AU
4 hours ago
- Sky News AU
AFL 2025: Hawthorn sell Waverley Park to AFL
Waverley Park, the site of one of only three AFL grand finals not played at the MCG, will remain a football venue after the league purchased it back from Hawthorn in a sale worth up to $20m. Hawthorn won the 1991 grand final at what was then VFL Park and then made it the club's training base following the last match played at the venue in 1999. The AFL sold the surrounding land to a developer for $110m, used the proceeds to fund Marvel Stadium, which it also now owns, before the Hawks purchased the freehold to the oval and administration building for just $1. But ahead of a move to a $100m new training facility in Melbourne's southeast, Hawthorn put Waverley up for sale and the AFL snatched it up with plans to use it for 'talent pathways programs, community footy, and umpire development and programs'. Games could also return to the venue in some form, possibly AFLW or even under-18 games. 'Waverley Park has had a long history in footy, being the first venue to be designed and built specifically for Australian rules football,' AFL boss Andrew Dillon said. 'The purchase of the ground and facilities is a rare and timely solution that will help with our talent pathways programs, community footy, and umpire development programs, all of which will now be worked through with the relevant stakeholders. 'The AFL has targeted having 10 million attendees at AFL/AFLW games, events, and festivals, two million AFL club members and one million participants, and in order to achieve the target for participation we need two ovals a week every week for the next five years. 'We are always looking for green space so we can continue to expand the playing fields we need to accommodate the strong national growth in people playing our game.' Hawthorn defeated West Coast in the 1991 grand final, played away from the MCG that was being redeveloped. The only other two grand finals not at the MCG were at the Gabba in Brisbane in 2020 and Optus Stadium in Perth in 2021, both due to Covid restrictions. Originally published as Nearly three decades after last AFL game played at Waverley the venue is back in league hands
