CAMINHAS WINS THE WORLD WHILE HART TAKES TITLE IN LAS VEGAS

LAS VEGAS (October 27, 2002) - Roll out the red carpet, Las Vegas. Professional Bull Riders' newest champions are ready to celebrate in style.

Brazilian athlete Ednei Caminhas is the Professional Bull Riders' 2002 World Champion, but after a four-day, five-bull showdown in Las Vegas, J.W. Hart is king of PBR's 2002 Bud Light Cup World Finals.

Caminhas' consistent performance throughout the PBR's 29-city Bud Light Cup Series secured him the title of 2002 Bud Light Cup World Champion prior to this week's Bud Light Cup World Finals action, which began Thursday and concluded Sunday with Round Four and the 15-man Built Ford Tough Championship Round. Though the world title race was over before the curtain lifted in Las Vegas, 45 bull riders came to the city of lights with Texas-sized appetites for the PBR Bud Light Cup World Finals title and their share of the $1.3 million prize. No rider was more hungry than Hart, and it showed as, round by round, he conquered the sport's toughest four-legged athletes.

Hart, 27, covered four of his five World Finals bulls for 356.5 points and earned $281,500 for his winning efforts, boosting his season total to $333,529. Hart finished second in Round One and won rounds three and four en route to the title. His highest-scoring ride - 93 points - came aboard Kelly Armstrong's bull Rational Solution. The PBR 2002 Bud Light Cup World Finals presented by Las Vegas and hosted by Caesars Palace, marked Hart's 180th Bud Light Cup Series event. It's the longest competitive streak in PBR history.

"I couldn't ask for a better place (than Las Vegas) to have such success," said Hart of Gainesville, Texas. "I won rookie of the year in 1995, and that's the last buckle I won. I've been waiting for this for a long time."

Hart's win came despite being plagued with injury in 2002. He battled an injured sacroiliac joint throughout the season, and, in September, fractured a piece of one of his lumbar vertebrae.

"It's been a hard year for J.W.," said Hart, long considered by his peers as one of the toughest bull riders in the sport's history. "(Winning the World Finals title) is icing on the cake, but there's a few guys I owe it to - God, Dr. Tandy Freeman and Rich Blyn (HealthSouth Sports Medicine's athletic trainer). Without them, my event streak would be broken and this win wouldn't be possible. I'll compete as long as Tandy can keep putting me back together."

Caminhas, whose native language is Portugese, expressed his emotion in a simple sentence.

"I am very, very happy for the world championship," he said before a sold-out crowd in Las Vegas' Thomas & Mack Center.

Though his English words were quiet and few, his smile said it all. The 27-year-old from Sao Paulo, Brazil, battled back from severe neck and facial lacerations suffered in February when a bull stepped on him after a ride. The wreck shook his confidence, but he fought back and won regular-season events in Bakersfield, Calif., Raleigh, N.C. and Columbus, Ohio.

OTHER NOTES FROM THE PBR 2002 BUD LIGHT CUP WORLD FINALS:

• Brazilian bull rider Adriano Moraes, PBR's two-time and defending Bud Light Cup World Champion, sprained the thumb of his riding hand during Round Three competition and did not compete Sunday in Round Four. Moraes was replaced by another former world champion - 1997 PBR Bud Light Cup World Champion Michael Gaffney of Coralles, N.M. Gaffney, 33, finished fourth in Round Four and picked up $7,500.

• Cory McFadden of Stephenville, Texas, matched 2002 PBR Bull of the Year Little Yellow Jacket, owned by Berger Bucking Bulls, for 95.0 points in the Built Ford Tough Championship Round. The ride marked the highest score of the four-day Bud Light Cup World Finals. It helped McFadden finished second to J.W. Hart for the overall event title and earned him the Lane Frost/Brent Thurman Memorial Award, which is presented to the rider with the event's highest overall score.

  "I was pretty excited when I found out I had (Little Yellow Jacket) since I've ridden him before," said McFadden, who topped Little Yellow Jacket last April in Billings, Mont., for 95.5 points. " I had a pretty good feeling about it." McFadden earned $178,491 for his runner-up showing in Las Vegas.

• Dan Henricks, 21, solidified the 2002 Rookie of the Year title with a 12th-place finish at the PBR 2002 Bud Light Cup World Finals. Henricks of Keithville, La., competed in all but three 2002 Bud Light Cup Series events and accumulated 5,176 Bud Light Cup Points. "It wasn't easy," said Henricks of his Rookie of the Year title win.

  "There were 12 other rookies who ride just as good as I do. I feel blessed that things turned out the way they did. The first night here the bright lights of Las Vegas kind of got to me, but after that, I got down to business."