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"\"&lt;p&gt;Tavarua Island, Fiji (Monday, May 22, 2000). The top 45 rated surfers in the world &amp;#8211; plusthree wildcard entrants &amp;#8211; were officially welcomed today by Fijian chiefs on Tavarua Island, the setting for this year&amp;#8217;s Quiksilver Pro Fiji 2000. With the event scheduled to begin tomorrow morning and perfect 8-10 ft conditions already present, this afternoon&amp;#8217;s ceremony saw traditional Kava drinking, as well as a blessing offered to competitors.&lt;P&gt;[IMAGE 1] Ratu Kini Vosilagi, chief of all Western Fiji, gave the following address: &amp;#8220;We welcome you with all our hearts and it&amp;#8217;s been an honour and a privilege to be here with you and see what you are going to do.&amp;#8221;&lt;P&gt; Six-time world champion and winner of the Gotcha Pro Tahiti last week, Kelly Slater (USA), heads the list of invited wildcards into the event along with two-time world champion Tom Carroll (Aus). Local Fijian surfer Wonga Tavarua, who received a wildcard spot last year, secured his place in the main event when he took out the Quiksilver Pro trials a few days ago in excellent 6-8 ft conditions at Cloudbreak.&lt;P&gt; Great Britain&amp;#8217;s Russell Winter is still hospitalized with blood poising which he developed while in Tahiti, and has been replaced by Quiksilver-sponsored Troy Brooks (Aus).&lt;P&gt; Tavarua Island and the Quiksilver Fiji Pro both remain unaffected by the political upheavals that have erupted in the country&amp;#8217;s capital, Suva, in recent days. &lt;P&gt; Official Quiksilver Pro Fiji First Round Match-ups&lt;P&gt;Heat 1: S Dorian (Haw) vs. G Emslie (SAfr) vs. K Malloy (USA)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 2: C Lopez (USA) vs. S Powell (Aus) vs. T Prestage (Aus)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 3: L Egan (Aus) vs. CJ Hobgood (USA) vs. M Hoy (Aus)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 4: F Padaratz (Brz) vs. T Curran (USA) vs. N Padaratz (Brz)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 5: N Webster (Aus) vs. Y Sodre (Brz) vs. K Slater (USA)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 6: M Campbell (Aus) vs. A Daltro (Brz) vs. T Martin (Aus)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 7: J Paterson (Aus) vs. S Lopez (USA) vs. R Dornelles (Brz)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 8: S Garcia (Haw) vs. B Emerton (Aus) vs. W Tavarua (Fiji)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 9: T Burrow (Aus) vs. D Hobgood (USA) vs. T Carroll (Aus)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 10: M Occhilupo (Aus) vs. G Herdy (Brz) vs. T Brooks (Aus)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 11: L Hitchings (Aus) vs. S Sutton (Haw) vs. R Williams (Haw)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 12: S Beschen (USA) vs. G Ringrose (Aus) vs. P Canning (SAfr)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 13: V Ribas (Brz) vs. R Machado (USA) vs. F Gouveia (Brz)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 14: M Lowe (Aus) vs. R Rocha (Brz) vs. D Wills (Aus)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 15: P Rosa (Brz) vs. R Lovett (Aus) vs. K Robb (Haw)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;P&gt;Heat 16: D Hardman (Aus) vs. B Bourgeois (USA) vs. T Knox (USA)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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