Byron Shire surfers Pauline Menczer, Jodie Cooper and Gary Elkerton finished in equal third, equal fifth and equal fifth respectively at the invitational Azores Airlines World Masters Championship last month.
Australians Rob Bain, Layne Beachley and Dave Macaulay all won claiming victory in the final bouts against Cheyne Horan, Rochelle Ballard (HAW) and Shane Beschen (HAW) respectively in the Grand Masters, Women’s Masters and Men’s Masters divisions held in good three-foot surf at Praia de Santa Barbara in the Azores Islands.
Equal pay
The World Surf League has announced that it will award equal prize money to male and female athletes for every WSL-controlled event in the 2019 season and beyond, becoming among the first internationally to achieve prize money equality.
All the Grand Slam tennis tournaments have offered equal prizemoney since 2007.
Parity holds for all WSL-owned events, which include all the CTs, the Longboard and Junior world champs, and the Big Wave Tour.
At present the winner of a WSL Women’s Championship Tour event wins $65,000, which will be increased to $100,00 in 2019.
‘This is incredible, and I am thrilled. The prizemoney is fantastic, but the message means even more. I hope this serves as a model for other sports, global organisations and society as a whole,’ women’s tour ratings leader Stephanie Gilmore said.
