One-armed surfer is a champ A teenage surfer who refused to quit the sport after losing an arm to a shark has triumphed in the world championships. Bethany Hamilton was 13 when a 15-foot Tiger shark mauled her while she was surfing in Hawaii in 2003. But she refused to give up her dream and last week was runner-up in the ASP World Junior Women's Surfing Championships, reports the Daily Mirror. Bethany, now 18, said: ?It never crossed my mind that I might never get on a surfboard again. ?I was sceptical about whether I would actually be able to do it or not. But before I even left hospital, I decided that I was going to surf.? Unbelievably, Bethany, from Hawaii, was back on the waves three weeks after the attack. She said: ?I had to work on my fear of sharks. Still to this day I get scared. But I thought ?This is not going to defeat me?.?
