A small but elite field of young talent has launched the 2014 Stand Up World Series in Brazil this weekend, with Connor Baxter drawing first blood by making it a clean sweep of both the Sprint and Long Distance races. Meanwhile on the women’s side it was Angie Jackson all the way, with the reinvigorated Aussie proving too strong for a select group of local and international paddlers.

The Connor/Kai rivalry, the recurring theme of the 2013 Series, returned on Day One of the Alagoas Pro, with the two superstars battling all the way to the finish line in the sprints. Connor got the win by half a second, while one wave further back was Aussie Jake Jensen, a paddler that I (and many others in Australia) have tipped to be one of the World Series title contenders this year. Coming home 4th was Zane Schweitzer, while rounding out the top 5 in the sprints was the Danish Viking, Casper Steinfath.

Day two (Sunday) saw the Distance Race and while many would have predicted a Kai/Connor battle, it was clear that Connor’s pre-season training has been better, with Kai fading badly over the distance to limp home in 10th. That result, combined with Kody Kerbox’s stellar runner-up finish and Jake Jensen with another third place, saw Kai knocked out of the top three overall and needing to improve fast ahead of next week’s Abu Dhabi All Stars.

Zane Schweitzer picked up 4th place in the Long Distance race to match his result from the Sprints on day one, however a slight anomaly in the new World Series rankings meant that his 4th + 4th (11,500 points) wasn’t as good as Kai’s 2nd + 10th (11,750 points) in the combined result. So that puts the final event standings (and early season title rankings) at: Connor, Jake, Kody, Kai, Zane.

Full results below…

#	Name	Sprint	Distance	Event rank	Season points
1	Connor Baxter	10000	10000	20000	10000
2	Jake Jenson	6500	6500	13000	8000
3	Kody Kerbox	4750	8000	12750	6500
4	Kai Lenny	8000	3750	11750	5750
5	Zane Schweitzer	5750	5750	11500	5000
6	Vinicius Martins	4500	5000	9500	4750
7	Casper Steinfath	5000	4250	9250	4500
8	Eric Terrien	4000	4500	8500	4250
9	Leonard Nika	3000	4750	7750	4000
10	Mo Freitas	4250	3250	7500	3750
11	Paulo dos Reis	3750	3500	7250	3500
12	Maria Cavaco Neto	2875	4000	6875	3250
13	Paul Jackson	3500	3000	6500	3000
14	Luis Carlos Guida	3250	2875	6125	2875
15	James Casey	2750	2500	5250	2750
16	Victor Blanes Eckert	2500	2625	5125	2625
17	Marcelo de Oliveira Lins	2500	2250	4750	2500
18	Gabriel Vilarinho Corezzi	2500	2125	4625	2375
19	Alexcsander Araujo Ferreira	2500	2000	4500	2250
20	Gustavo Moura Costa e Costa	2625	1800	4425	2125
21	Manuel Simoncelli	2500	1900	4400	2000
22	Pepe Oltra Sana	2500	1700	4200	1900
23	Americo Pinheiro Junior	2500	1600	4100	1800
24	Tavares Mateus	2500	1500	4000	1700
25	Michel Jonas Dias Bastos	2500	1300	3800	1600
26	Bruno Pitanga	2500	1200	3700	1500
27	Arthur Carvalho Mas Santacreu	800	2750	3550	1400
28	Candido Chutorianscy	2500	1000	3500	1300
29	Luis Marques de Santana	2500	800	3300	1200
30	Carlos Bahia	2500	550	3050	1100
31	Keylor Pimentel Silva	2500	485	2985	1000
32	Justin Holland	2500	430	2930	900
33	Guilherme Batista de Souza	2500		2500	800
34	Gui		2375	2375	700
35	Itamar Silveira do Carmo	800	1400	2200	600
36	Antonio Gonzaga	800	530	1330	550
37	Ariel Alves de Souza	800	520	1320	540
38	Luiz Antonio Nabazo Barros	800	500	1300	530
39	Aloysio Alves Vasconcellos	800	460	1260	520
40	Claudio Carneiro	800	340	1140	510
41	Andrei Oliveira		1100	1100	500
42	Jose Victor		900	900	485
43	Carlos Jose Oliveira de Jesus	800		800	460
43	Antonio Fernando	800		800	445
45	Neno		700	700	430
46	Jefferson Comaru		600	600	415
47	Jean Paulo FN		540	540	400
48	Pedro Valadares		510	510	375
49	Gabriel Pereira		445	445	350
50	Otavio Luis Martins		415	415	340
51	Lucas Menegazzo		400	400	330
52	Carlos Chain		375	375	320
53	Antonio Carvalho		350	350	310
54	Jorge Mario Villas Boras		330	330	300

Women’s combined results (Sprint + Distance)
1st:: Angela Jackson (1st + 1st)
2nd: Barbara Brasil (2nd + 2nd)
3rd: Laura Quetglas (3rd + 3rd)
4th: Kelsa Gabehart (4th + 5th)
5th: Lena Ribeiro (5th + 4th)
6th: Edimar Luque (6th + 6th)
7th: Carolina Angibaud (7th + 7th)
8th: Ariani Theophili (8th + 8th)
9th: Andrea Mendonca (9th + 9th)
10th: Marly Pires (9th + DNS)