Cornish Wins Women's Hot Tuna Pro
Mar 23 2007 / SOLDIERS BEACH, Australia
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The 26 year-old from Byron Bay on the New South Wales north coast edged out Brazilian dynamite duo Tais Almeida and Sylvana Lima as well as Kiwi junior sensation, Paige Hareb.
This is the ASP World Tour surfer’s fourth win as a professional surfer, but it’s been a while since the Aussie charger has held the winner’s trophy above her head.
Cornish’s last victory speech was at a 2004 4 Star World Qualifying Series (WQS) held at Santa Cruz in the United States.
Her first ever win was at South West Rocks on the New South Wales north coast when she crushed an all boy field at just 12 years of age and won an ice cream.
“I thought there’s got to be more ice creams out there,” she joked.Three years later, Cornish was competing on the WQS.
After today pocketing a cash prize of $US2500 and 500 points for taking out the 2 Star Hot Tuna Central Coast Pro, she can buy a truckload of ice creams.
But she won’t, as she is too concerned with fitness and conditioning.
“I only came into the Hot Tuna for some heat practice,” said a refreshed Cornish, who has been “working severely” on her mental and physical conditioning.
“I’ve been doing some work with a sports therapist and been working hard to eliminate negativity from my existence,” she said.
“It’s easy, when you start losing a few heats, to start focusing on defeat.
“But I have been getting positive reinforcement, doing a lot of hard training and getting my head and body in the right space to start winning,” the affable Cornish said.
Combining those efforts with regular yoga sessions, Cornish is confident that she can finish 2007 in a stronger position than last year’s 11th placing on the World Tour’s end of year chart.
“Last year was not good,” Cornish says, before checking herself.
“It was not good except that it made me realise I needed a new approach,” she quickly adds.
But that strength of mind and body she is referring to was obvious in today’s final, when her wave selection, her vertical snaps and her ability to push hard off the bottom and beat collapsing sections was what got her past Almeida by a tad more than half a point.
Currently sitting in 8th place on the elite tour rankings after the season’s opener at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast last month, Cornish will now fly to Margaret River before resuming the World Tour at Bells Beach over Easter.
“After Bells we’ve got three months off till Huntington, so I will be continuing to work on the fitness,” she said.
Brazilian Lima, who won the Midori Pro at Newcastle less than a week ago, just couldn’t find the waves in the final.
A clear favourite this morning with those who like a casual punt, Lima showed again at Soldiers that she is going to be a standout performer on the elite tour in 2007.
The pocket rocket is firming as favourite among long time pundits to become the first Brazilian to take a surfing world title at the highest level.
Young Kiwi Paige Hareb was not shamed by the other trio of professional women surfers who have a lifetime of more experience between them.
The 16 year-old from Taranaki, who came 2nd at Phillip Island and 3rd at Coolum in the ASP Australasian Junior Series, is flying back to the land of the long white cloud tomorrow.
Hareb will be looking to improve on her current 8th position in the series rankings when she contests the Raglan junior event next week.
