As promised in yesterday's Beyond Boarders post, here is a full report on the 2006 Rip Curl Pro Mademoiselle finals at Seignosse, France.
Chelsea Georgeson (Aus) remains in third position on the ASP ratings, but has narrowed the gap between her and world No. 2 Layne Beachley (Aus). Melanie Redman-Carr (Aus) who briefly dropped down to second in the rankings last week, is back on top after her runner-up finish to Georgeson. The Australian trio are now putting daylight between themselves and the rest of the field.
"I'm just happy to have my first win this year." Georgeson said "It feels like forever since my last win at Maui. It's definitely been a hard start to the year, because Mel's just been on fire. She won the first three contests of the year and there hasn't been a whole lot of room for anyone else up there at the top. At the same time, it's really good competition. Right now, each contest is about trying to get a win because that's all I can do to get the world title back and that's what it's going to take to get it back."
Georgeson continued "You can't win it with seconds and thirds, it's going to takes firsts at the moment. I've only got one win, Mel's got three, but hopefully I can do this in the next three contests; just do what I did here, be really focused and hope everything comes together for me."
Chelsea took command in Monday's thirty minute, all-Australian final, leaving Redmann-Carr needing a combination of two excellent scoring waves to overtake her. This marks Georgeson's third ASP Women's World Tour victory in France, her first win was in 2003 and she was last year's winner.
Melanie said "Chelsea got the best waves today and I probably missed one or two. I just mistimed them, so it was just quite boring for me out there; I was just drifting around out there hoping it would end." She had previously eliminated Silvana Lima (Bra) in the first semifinal, when Silvana suffered a similar fate, only catching three waves during the whole of their contest.
Jessi Miley-Dyer, current world No. 4 didn't fare any better in the second semifinal, she was beaten by Chelsea Georgeson in their semifinal heat after only managing to catch one wave.
Thanks again to Karen Wilson and the ASP team for supplying the images. Next up is the Havaianas Beachley Classic in Sydney, Australia during October.
Current rankings:
1. Melanie Redman-Carr (Aus) ..........4752 points
2. Layne Beachley (Aus) ....................4452 points
3. Chelsea Georgeson (Aus) ...............4044 points
4. Jessi Miley-Dyer (Aus) ..................2808 points
5. Silvana Lima (Bra) .......................2796 points
6. Rebecca Woods (Aus) ...................2580 points
7. Sofia Mulanovich (Per) .................2568 points
8. Heather Clark (Zaf) ......................2388 points
9. Claire Bevilacqua (Aus) .................2376 points
10. Rochelle Ballard (Haw) ................2196 points
10. Samantha Cornish (Aus) ..............2196 points
