<p>Australian seven-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore admitted she had been "too picky" after her dream of winning Olympic surfing's first gold medal ended in a shock defeat on Monday.</p>.<p>Gilmore was bundled out in the third round at the Tokyo Games by unheralded South African Bianca Buitendag -- seeded 17 out of 20 surfers.</p>.<p>Buitendag took the lead at Tsurigasaki Beach by jumping on the first big wave of the contest, and Gilmore was left to rue her decision to let her have it.</p>.<p>"I looked at that wave and I thought, 'it doesn't look that good', so I let her have it and she turned it into a seven. That was the most frustrating thing for me," said Gilmore, one of the favourites for the gold medal.</p>.<p>"There were a lot of waves but maybe not a lot of good ones. But in saying that, I probably got too picky."</p>.<p>Gilmore was joined in an early exit by French world number two Johanne Defay, who lost to Portugal's Yolanda Hopkins.</p>.<p>The two giant-killings opened up the field for American world number one Carissa Moore, who was in action later in the morning.</p>.<p>But Gilmore was left with nothing but regrets after failing in her bid to add the Olympic gold medal to her bulging collection of world titles.</p>.<p>"That was the dream, that was the goal," she said. "If you want to win, you've got to really want it bad.</p>.<p>"That was my mission and I'm super-disappointed that I didn't make it happen, but there's always Paris."</p>.<p>Buitendag, who needed to come through the repechage second round to reach the head-to-head knockout stage, was happy to throw caution to the wind.</p>.<p>"I had nothing to lose, absolutely no pressure," said the 1.85-metre (six feet) South African.</p>.<p>"I'm the underdog, coming in as the 17th seed for this event. So it was a really comfortable spot to be in. It takes away all the nerves and pressure. It just seemed to go my way."</p>.<p>The men's competition was set to resume later in the day, with Americans John John Florence and Kolohe Andino going head to head in the pick of the round.</p>
<p>Australian seven-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore admitted she had been "too picky" after her dream of winning Olympic surfing's first gold medal ended in a shock defeat on Monday.</p>.<p>Gilmore was bundled out in the third round at the Tokyo Games by unheralded South African Bianca Buitendag -- seeded 17 out of 20 surfers.</p>.<p>Buitendag took the lead at Tsurigasaki Beach by jumping on the first big wave of the contest, and Gilmore was left to rue her decision to let her have it.</p>.<p>"I looked at that wave and I thought, 'it doesn't look that good', so I let her have it and she turned it into a seven. That was the most frustrating thing for me," said Gilmore, one of the favourites for the gold medal.</p>.<p>"There were a lot of waves but maybe not a lot of good ones. But in saying that, I probably got too picky."</p>.<p>Gilmore was joined in an early exit by French world number two Johanne Defay, who lost to Portugal's Yolanda Hopkins.</p>.<p>The two giant-killings opened up the field for American world number one Carissa Moore, who was in action later in the morning.</p>.<p>But Gilmore was left with nothing but regrets after failing in her bid to add the Olympic gold medal to her bulging collection of world titles.</p>.<p>"That was the dream, that was the goal," she said. "If you want to win, you've got to really want it bad.</p>.<p>"That was my mission and I'm super-disappointed that I didn't make it happen, but there's always Paris."</p>.<p>Buitendag, who needed to come through the repechage second round to reach the head-to-head knockout stage, was happy to throw caution to the wind.</p>.<p>"I had nothing to lose, absolutely no pressure," said the 1.85-metre (six feet) South African.</p>.<p>"I'm the underdog, coming in as the 17th seed for this event. So it was a really comfortable spot to be in. It takes away all the nerves and pressure. It just seemed to go my way."</p>.<p>The men's competition was set to resume later in the day, with Americans John John Florence and Kolohe Andino going head to head in the pick of the round.</p>